Silver Streams
by Ryka Spar
Summary: Ai never really found herself fitting in anywhere. She's considered crazy by most people for her ridiculous ideas of flying machines, creepy 'puppets' that converse with her, and radical claims of walls telling stories of the past. She never cared much, until she found she was needed to help the village.
1. Chapter 1 - We're All Mad Here

It has been many a long moon, but I figured I'd upload this. Just a little thing I've been working on. This one has been sitting in my files for a long time, but I've been inspired by the many other SI OC stories out there. This kind of falls into that, I wouldn't say the character is _that_ similar to me. If people like it enough I might do more.

Heads up. 1) I'm submitting two, cause I thought it was nicer to break it in half. (Flow or something) and 2) ... eeeeh, the story might be a little strange. I have weird ideas sometimes.

* * *

Silver Streams

We're all Mad Here

※

The _gat, gat, gat_ of gun fire echoes against stone, replaying over and over. Panicked eyes look around as Naoki presses her into the base of a rock. It's hard to see, misty fog envelopes everything.

"Stay here," he orders loudly over the sounds of battle. He presses something cold and hard into her hands. "Hold this; if anyone approaches without the signal, you shoot them. Understand?" The girl nods shakily. Nao and the girl both flinch as a piece of metal clangs off the rock near his head. "Damn it, what is _with_ these people?"

The dark-haired man turns, raises his gun and fires. The familiar _ping, ping, ping_ of shells hitting the rock ring out, surprisingly loud to her ears. With one last look back, Naoki moves forward and vanishes into the fog.

Shouts of pain and orders fly across the battlefield. Clanging metal, flashes of fire, cracking lightening, and shaking earth fill her senses, vibrating her bones. Her heart is pounding; her hands are damp and gritty with dirt. Her breathing is quick, just shy of hyperventilation.

A shadow flicks into life before her, she raises her hands. Flash of light on metal. Blood spatters across her face. Warm and sticky.

Now she _is_ hyperventilating.

She woke with a jolt, the echoing _bang_ bouncing in her skull, her breaths uneven and bursting from her in pants. Ai can feel her forehead coated in sweat and when she reaches up to rub both the sweat and lasting sound away she finds her hand is equally damp and shaking too badly to help. Her heart is jack-rabbiting in her chest still and the adrenaline coursing through her veins makes the rest of her quake.

Ai tried to listen beyond the thumping of her heart, trying to hear any sound from Hayate. The continuing silence either means he's still sleeping or has already left for the day. She'd hate to disturb him; he needs his rest more than her.

With a deep breath, and still shivering, Ai readjusted her sitting position and began her breathing exercises, trying to regain her control.

She sighed when the clock on her end table begins to ring.

※※※※※

Ai yawned, rubbing at one of her watering eyes as she walked down the hallway. At the far end was a large double door and a man dressed in the green flak jacket and dark blue uniform of Konohagakure. Along with a shock of nearly white hair, a mask covering just above his nose, and with a forehead protector hanging over one eye.

The hushed whispering grew more fervent as she neared him.

"Hello there. Working hard?" Ai could _hear_ his smile.

 _Red, yellow, white. Blood, lightning, loss. Alone with only barking dogs._

Ai could also hear that. Voices. It was a thing for her.

She took a breath and sent him a look. "Don't act like you don't know I'm busy. I've been slaving non-stop since the get-go."

She winced internally. Hayate was always telling her she had a problem with first impressions and she had promised him she'd try to do better. So much for that.

"Ah," she could practically hear the judging, "well, don't take it the wrong way, but what are you doing here then?"

The young girl let out a sigh, pulling at her unzipped flak jacket to put it back onto her shoulder. "I have to get some forms fixed, because people can't actually do _their_ jobs and check to see if the entry forms have been fully filled out. Heaven forbid I don't have something to do for an hour. Some Ame genin slacked off, their jonin didn't check, and some chunin didn't either, so now I'm here." Well, it had started off okay… the first seven words anyway. She looked back at the taller man, changing the subject. "You're Kakashi, right? Word in the rumor mill is you put your team up for the exams. You sure that was a good idea?"

Before the white-haired man could answer a resounding shout of "Believe it!" rung out from the other side of the doors.

The man gave an embarrassed chuckle, "I suppose that answers the question, huh?"

"It certainly does." The girl glanced at the door. "I should get going; I need to contact those Ame-nin. It was nice… meeting you though."

Never hurt to be polite. –ish.

"Right," he said giving her a small smile and stepped forward. The jonin grabbed the handle and pulled the door open for her.

When the door opened the whispering grew more insistent. It grew from quiet murmuring to yammering voices, fighting to be heard over each other. Ai shoved it to the back of her mind, returning it to the quiet murmur as she took a breath and moved forward.

Crowds were almost a good thing; there were so many voices it was hard to understand them individually.

Stepping inside she found herself surrounded by young genin. They had apparently decided gathering in front of the door was a good idea. With a sigh, she navigated between them, noting the sound of the door swinging shut behind her.

"Kagari, Mubi, and Oboro," Ai called loudly before adding as a side, and as incentive to reply quickly, genin taking the exams were always jumpy, "if those are your real names, please come forward. I have your chunin entry documents. You failed to fill out the reverse side. If you do not do so, you will be disqualified. This will be your only notification. I'll give you the benefit of a difficult walk to the back of the room, you have one minute to comply."

Luckily, it didn't take the three man team long to arrive. They didn't seem too happy with her earlier statement either.

"What do you mean 'if those are your real names'?" One of them challenged. His picture corresponded with the one she had for an 'Oboro.'

 _Rain, rain, rain. It's raining, it's pouring. The red god is ruling._ Ai shoved the voice away.

"I don't care if you put your names down as Larry, Curly, and Moe," she replied, pulling out the three sheets of paper in question. "As I said, you failed to complete your entry forms." She fanned them and turned her hand so the three could see the blank backs. "Please, fill them out if you wish to continue. Otherwise, I will be forced to disqualify you and none of us would want that." Three pencils where then produced and the blonde girl offered both pencil and paper to the Rain genin.

Oboro stepped forward and removed the two items before returning to his teammates. They moved to a nearby desk to finish the paperwork.

She tucked the file into her arm and waited.

"Who the hell are you?" A voice challenged behind her.

 _Orange, orange, orange, red. Cruel eyes. Nine shadows on a wall behind the bars._

Turning to look over, she spotted a blond, orange-clad Konoha genin. The entry forms she had studied earlier let her know he was called Naruto Uzumaki.

"They call her love, love, love, love, love," a second voice injected in a sing-song tone. Despite the singing quality she recognized this one and actively disliked it. He'd been in the Chunin Exams six times previously and he had a knack for finding her. Kabuto Yakushi.

The only good thing about him was that his frequent appearance had helped her learn to silence the disturbing hissing voice that would start spitting when he arrived. This in turn helped her silence all the voices that would appear.

Her first impression of him hadn't been good. The voices had gone on about hospitals and bleach, which had only made _her_ recall the smell. Between that and how fixated on her he seemed to be it made her uneasy. She had tried to get him to stop, but he just didn't _let go_.

With her middle finger she pointed out at the silver-haired, purpled-clothed ninja. She flipped it up at him as she spoke. "Keep it up. I'll disqualify you. I have that power."

He grinned at her. "Come now, Ai." He admonished in a sickly light tone.

"Hey, Kabuto," Naruto interrupted, "is she your girlfriend?"

Before the silver haired ninja could respond, Ai spoke.

"I would rather chew glass _and_ have my eyes sucked out by dinner-plate sized mosquitoes." She turned to the high-collared, sunglass-wearing genin by the door. "No offense," she said to him. "I have nothing against your clan, but a girl has got to express her dislike. You understand, yeah?"

"I appreciate your consideration," he replied quietly. "Why? It appears you respect the abilities of insects."

Ai turned back to Kabuto. "There, see. _That_ was courtesy. You could learn a thing or five."

"We have completed –"

"Oh, finally," Ai nearly groaned in relief. She quickly moved to the three Rain ninja before they could come to her. "Thank you," she said taking the papers and the pencils. She turned to leave when another call interrupted her.

"Wait, Ai." She sighed, but at least it wasn't Kabuto, so she paused and looked. It was Okei, sliding through the crowd. Hayase was close behind him. "Could you do me a favor?" he asked. When she didn't respond he took it as permission to continue. Which it was. "Well, you see, Hayase and I were goofing around."

"There's a good start," she injected. Okei grinned sheepishly.

"What I'm getting at is that Hayase got a cheap-shot in," they both ignored the 'hey,' of protest, "and it landed on my headband. The metal got a bit cracked and I was hoping you could fix it for me, please? Oh, and _please_ don't mention it to Hayama-sensei."

With a sigh, she gestured for him to bring out his headband. He grinned and dug it out of his pocket, presenting it to her. The metal had a good crack running through it and looked like a piece was a hair's width from chipping out completely.

She just barely caught Kabuto's, 'watch this,' to the group of genin standing about him.

Ai held her hand over the metal, pulling her chakra forward. With the chakra settled in her hand she couldn't push the voice she heard into complete silence. The broken metal echoed a bit, but despite that it still hummed pleasantly to her, telling her of the care Okei showed and the fun he had been experiencing lately. The entertainment he'd felt preparing for the chunin exam. The 'voice' continued to merrily chat away to her, going further and further back into Okei's history.

Compared to others she had heard, this one was sweet and warm. And at least he had nothing in his past so terrible that the hitai-ate screamed at her.

She pressed the soft voice back gently.

Before she pushed her chakra forward into the headband, Ai spoke to the older man, "I take payment in the form of baked goods."

"I'll see what I can do," he grinned

Pushing her chakra out, she felt the metal shift and move, sealing itself back together. Removing her hand the metal was now shining and fully repaired. It hummed louder, the echo ceasing, but as she pulled away she could quiet it into the stream of other voices.

"Take better care of your hitai-ate next time. Or I'll let Hayama-sensei beat you senseless."

Okei chuckled uneasily. "Thanks, Ai."

With a small smile she turned to leave again, Ai stopped when Kabuto slid in front of her. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"We should get together after the Exam, have lunch."

"I don't think so," she said, shooting him down. Ai stepped around the taller man, adjusting the folder in her arm.

"You know what I think the problem here is, Ai?"

"Oh, please," she rolled her eyes.

"You just don't know what I'm capable of."

Ai gave a short laugh, looking over her shoulder at him. "Not anything better than _that_ , apparently." With a shake of her head she turned away laughing more, Ai could hear Okei and Hayase chuckling to each other. Opening the door, she turned back. "Enjoy your Chunin Exams." She gave the door a good, forceful closing. Not quite a slam, more of an ominous bang.

"Making friends?" Kakashi was apparently still in the hallway. She could tell he was grinning at her.

"You are my witness," she told him, "If Yakushi keeps trying to come on to me, I won't be responsible for my actions. It is all in self-defense."

"To be young," Kakashi said with a chuckle.

"To be dumb," she returned. "See you around, maybe." Ai turned to walk away.

"You're the one Hayate has been looking after, right?" He asked before she got too far. He probably knew the answer already, but she nodded her head. Kakashi continued, "How's he doing?"

"It's under control," she told him. Ai knew what Kakashi was getting at, though she wasn't sure who all also knew.

"That's good," he grinned at her again. "See you at the second round."

"You hope." The tall ninja vanished in a swirl of leaves and Ai soon found herself walking steadily down the empty hallway.

At least the sun was radiating its pleasant warmth today.

※※※※※

A few hours later Ai was once again sorting through files and filling out information into databases, both electronic and paper. It's a pain since Konoha didn't fully trust electronic systems to store information.

For them it was a new technology and Ai wanted to bang her head on the desk for how slow it went. She had spent a few years of paper-pushing for the Chunin Exams, which, while not always in Konoha, she still had to document and file exit and re-entrance visas. It made her want to scream.

No matter how many times she had tried to get permission to update their computers, if you could call them that, it never went through. Hayate had told her, in the kindest way possible, to stop asking him to ask the Hokage.

Not being a ninja and having been found on the borders of neighboring nations and brought into the village, she wasn't widely trusted. Particularly since she was found near the always rumbling Land of Lightning. Such being the case, she was not allowed to see the Hokage in person. Since she couldn't see him, she couldn't give her properly worded and well-thought-out argument.

It wasn't anything personally against Hayate, but he, and no one she had yet come across, could keep up with her technological jargon. Even when she slowed it down from rapid-fire. She couldn't help it if she got so excited she spoke a million miles an hour or that she used words that didn't exist.

She got so many weird looks. Hayate had tried to tell her to restrain herself a bit more in public, but it didn't stop the word 'crazy' being passed around the village. Only those close to her knew that it was wild and unabridged intelligence and not any actual psychiatric disorder.

Mostly.

A good portion of people didn't believe the voices she heard were genuine.

Which they were.

But once you start mentioning you hear voices people stop listening.

Not that she could blame them for calling her crazy, it made sense. She would think people like that were lunatics too.

The fact that she talked to Abel didn't help her either. He really did talk back though.

"Ai," a soft voice and light knock interrupted her idle, and nearing a train-wreck worthy, thoughts.

"Oh, hey, Hayate," Ai turned to look at the ninja standing in the doorway. She dusted her hands, unnecessarily, on her pants. "Business or pleasure?"

"A bit of both," he replied with a small cough. "I wanted to remind you that we'll be leaving in the morning to go to Tower Forty-Four. I believe Ibiki will be by later with the passing teams." Ai groaned, mostly for the idea of going to the tower, though more work was up there, but at least she was getting paid. "Also, will you be home tonight?" Hayate coughed lightly.

"Why?" Ai grinned slyly at him. "You need some _alone_ time?"

He ignored her jibe. "Not so much, Yugao and I were thinking of getting Sashimi, we weren't sure if you'd be busy or not."

"Probably," she answered, "I'm always busy these days. Over-time all the time. Oh, and you know I don't like Sashimi."

Hayate hummed, pretending to be in thought. "Do you?"

"Yes." He gave her one of his small smiles.

"I'll see you bright and early tomorrow then."

"Sure, sure."

"Make sure you pack for a few days."

"I _know_. Thank you, mother." Hayate turned to leave. "I'll bring some things to make food," Ai added, causing Hayate to look back at her. "We both know that tower is only stocked with MREs." A confused look entered into her companion's eyes, Ai realized her mistake. "Meal-Ready-to-Eat. Rations."

"You come up with interesting ideas sometimes." The brown-haired man said wryly, yet there was a fondness in his voice. "Bring your sword; we'll get some training in too."

"Have fun," Ai wished. He nodded before turning and leaving Ai to get back to work.

Ai was taking a lunch break about an hour later, when Ibiki showed up. Which she only noticed because Abel, who was tucked under her desk, lifted his head and turned it towards the door. Abel knew and trusted Hayate; there was no reason for concern. Ibiki, while not an unknown per se still warranted an alerting. Ai turned to meet the _huge_ man.

"Ibiki," she greeted.

"Ai," he returned. The tall, grey and black-clad man handed her a manila folder, which she took, while being studied the whole time. "Should you be eating that?"

She had _technically_ met Ibiki when he had grilled her relentlessly after Hayate had first brought her to the village.

Ai still thought he had been a little harsh to a seven year old, but she supposed, interrogation was his job.

They had _officially_ met, however, through Hayate. The younger man worked for Ibiki on a number of occasions and sometimes they had met while she was present. Obviously, none of it was sensitive information, but they had had lunch as a group before. It was incredibly awkward.

Her relationship wasn't as close with Ibiki as it was with Hayate. Not unusual, she wasn't as close to anyone as she was with Hayate.

Ibiki, though, did seem to approve of her 'strange aptitude' for gathering information about people. Even if a lot of it was mundane and often useless facts, at least in her mind. He also appeared to be quite fond of Abel, at least in theory. Abel was intimidating to some people.

A skeletal cat made from shining metal and possessing grinding saw-like teeth seemed to intimidate a lot of people.

In short, they were amicable enough to say pointed things like that, Ibiki liked to tease, frequently in callous ways, but not affable enough to have a sit-down lunch or an actual chat. Certainly not without Hayate present.

It didn't help Ai was pretty much rude to everyone.

"I'm young," Ai replied, eating more sweets, "my body will adjust."

"Or die."

"There are certainly worse things. Exercise lately?" Ai paused, letting her implication sink in before she turned to the file. Upon seeing the number of papers contained, she spoke, "Why is this folder so thick?"

"We've got a good batch this year." Ibiki grinned. "I heard you yelling at them earlier."

"I wasn't yelling at them, but since we're on the subject, tell your proctors to do their jobs."

"I'll give them the reminder." He studied her a moment longer, and her most likely sour face. "Enjoy Tower Forty-Four." Ibiki turned around and strode to the open door.

"I will," Ai said to the back of his billowing trench coat.

"Bring a jacket." He added passing through the doorway.

She slammed her hand on the table she sat at. " _You_ bring a jacket," she hissed. Whether he heard her or not, Ai didn't know, and didn't really care. That jacket fiasco had only happened once, why couldn't he let it go.

For some reason, even as he left, Ai couldn't shake the feeling that Ibiki was, suspiciously enough, pleased with himself for some reason. He hadn't seemed overly concerned with his slacking subordinates, who had never slacked off years previously.

If Ai didn't know better, she'd think he was up to something.

Abel stretched his body, groaning at her with a deep rumble.

"He is, isn't he?" Ai asked rhetorically.


	2. Chapter 2 - Better to be Feared

Part II, as promised.

* * *

Silver Streams

Better to be Feared

※

It was still dark when Hayate and Ai reached the fence around the Forty-Fourth Training Ground. A number of chunin proctors and helpers were milling about as well. Some wore that ugly grey uniform, which Ibiki had threatened her with, while others wore the standard ninja gear.

Ai slumped to the ground, pulling at her absurdly large chunin vest and removed a high-energy ration bar from one of the front pockets. She sleepily began to eat it. Abel settled onto the ground behind her, curling up like the overlarge cat he is.

"I'm going to speak with Anko," Hayate started, "get us checked in."

"Sure," Ai nodded, grateful that she didn't have to talk to the purpled-haired woman. Hayate knew Anko made her uncomfortable, the woman wouldn't leave her alone since she had let a 'that's what she said,' slip in Anko's presence, which she had thought hilarious.

Ai couldn't even remember what had induced the response, so it couldn't have been as funny as Anko seemed to think it was. Hayate said it was because she would sometimes say odd things and Anko was waiting for another one.

It made her uncomfortable. Anko had a bad habit of staring.

Blinking, Ai looked around, noticing that more chunin were showing up, more than she had thought would be arriving.

"How come there's so many?" Ai asked to herself, mostly.

"Not many of the chunin are interested in being transported from the village to the tower. The farther the transport the more uncomfortable it feels. It's easier to just be there instead."

Ai started slightly and looked up to her side. She was somewhat surprised to see Iruka standing there looking as tired as she, his hands tucked into his pockets.

Abel had never seemed particularly concerned about Iruka. Sure, he'd started off alerting her when he came around, just like for anyone else, but after a few months Iruka had somehow reached the same threat-less level that Hayate occupied. She didn't know why, Iruka was a good ninja and could kill as easily as the next, but Abel had never bothered explaining his reason and Ai trusted his judgement. This did, however, afford both Iruka and Hayate the ability to sneak up on her.

"Hello Iruka-san," she greeted, actually using a honorific. She never usually bother, it was part of why she was considered rude. Honestly, she kept forgetting. Where she was from, they weren't a thing. She liked Iruka enough to remember, though.

"Hello Ai," he returned, settling down beside her.

She and Iruka had a friendly relationship, they had met through Hayate – he was the one she had met everyone through.

Iruka was a good-natured and intelligent man that didn't seem to mind her idiosyncrasies. Probably because he had to deal with rambunctious, and often manic, children on a daily basis. Ai would seem tame in comparison, though admittedly she was a lot more relaxed than most.

Hayate had that effect on people.

If Ai had to guess, he might enjoy her company simply because she behaved much older than the fourteen years she'd lived. That she was capable of holding an intelligent conversation with him. He even humored her wild ideas. He did seem quite fond of the hot air balloon, though.

"I didn't know you were going to be here," Ai told him.

"You didn't?" He said with slight disbelief.

"I've been doomed to organizing the genin teams and pushing papers. I wasn't aware of who would be involved in helping," Ai paused before adding, "other than the obvious, I suppose." Iruka nodded, recognizing she meant the special jonin she had been directly working for.

"All right!" Anko yelled over the group of ninja clustered together sitting or standing as they waited. "If you are unaware, the tunnel is in that group of trees over there," Anko gestured. "So, those going to the tower, get moving!"

Iruka, the well-trained ninja he was, was up faster, and more gracefully, than her. Being the kind man he was, he offered his hand to help her to her feet, which she happily took. She was lazy and the look in Iruka's eyes as he pulled her up, with more effort than if Ai had been helping, said he knew exactly how lazy she was being. She grinned at the older man.

Abel stood up, rattling himself and bumping into her thigh.

Ai leaned over and picked up her large duffle bag which contained a number of food items. Iruka held out his hand as an offer of help once more. She gave him a firm look before sniffing.

"I am a strong, independent, young woman and I don't require your help," she said as she hefted the duffle bag onto her shoulder.

"Of course you are," he grinned.

Hayate appeared a moment later.

"Do we _have_ to take the tunnel?" she asked him as their group of three, plus Abel, went to meet up with the small group heading for the tower. Anko sent her a wink. Ai hastily looked the other way. "There's spiders in there."

"There are bigger spiders in the woods."

Ai glanced at the tall trees of The Forest. "I think I'd take my chances. The odd of coming into contact with those spiders are much lower."

"The odds of seeing them before they drop on your head are much lower too," Hayate commented casually.

"There is some form of validness in that statement," Ai admitted reluctantly. Hayate looked at her, a glint in his eye. Before she could back away, the older man's arm flashed out and his hand grabbed her head. His fingers slid into her hair and he vigorously ruffled her already unruly, blonde locks. "No, no," Ai protested as he ruined her hair more than it usually was, "I worked hard on it today."

Hayate released her from his hold and ignoring her withering glare, he 'hmm'ed his disbelief. Ai didn't take that much care of her appearance, beyond the essentials. She sent another glare at the chuckling Iruka and she tried to finger-comb her hair into a slight form of order.

A chunin performed a few quick hand signs and the ground cracked open, which was then hauled up to reveal the entrance to the tunnel that would allow them to bypass the forest entirely.

Abel darted down as the entrance was opened, his limbs rattling as he went to which Ai received a few looks and to which she shrugged in response.

Most people thought, and it was a good idea thanks to Hayate, that Abel was an exercise in chakra control. She had to maintain control over him as she sent him out of eyesight and over large distances. That it was more of a self-trained puppetry jutsu.

The truth, however, was that Abel was a thinking, self-aware creature of his own. The spark that had given him life, if that is the best way to describe it, was her chakra.

How, Ai wasn't sure. The idea of magical 'chakra' that seemed to allow one to break the rules of physics disagreed with her highly science-infused brain, but she had been living with, and using it, for a number of years now and she couldn't deny the fact it existed.

How it worked, beyond flowing through the body, soul, and everything else around you, Ai had no clue.

Turning to Iruka, Ai asked, "How's teaching going?"

"Different," he responded. "I'm sure you know I've been teaching a new class of students." Ai nodded. "The Hokage's grandson, Konohamaru, is in my class now. He says he's been training with Naruto, you can see Naruto's influence on him. I can't decide if it's a good thing or not, but at least Konohamaru is calmer than him still."

"I met those nine genin of yours yesterday," she said. Iruka's look asked 'did you?' "Well sort of," she redirected. "Naruto yelled at me."

"Of course he did," Iruka sighed. Beside her Hayate chuckled.

"I also met their Sensei," she aimed this a bit more towards Hayate, though she knew that Iruka was aware of Kakashi as well. "He's a bit condescending, don't you think?"

"He can be," Hayate said laughter still in his voice. "He's a good man, and ninja, strange though, but I suppose we all are somewhat."

"You forgot conically late," Iruka added. As an administrative ninja that had to do his rounds in the mission office, Ai was sure that Iruka found that trait particularly annoying.

Abel came trotting back to her, rattling that the way was clear. He circled about her and bumped into her legs before dropping back to walk behind her.

Chatter continued amicably between them and the other ninja in the tunnel until they arrived to the exit leading into the tower. Once inside, talk turned to business and once again Abel took off to examine the current level of danger.

Which Ai was pretty sure was very low, but Abel had an almost excessive protective streak.

The one bright side in the dark, dank tower was that it had already been cleaned in preparation for the second portion of the exam.

Ai made her way for one of the two stairways, with the intent of setting up the kitchen. She truly hadn't been joking with Hayate about making food while they were here. Eating what tasted like cardboard and packing peanuts, even if it did have more nutrition, wasn't entirely appealing.

She walked past a chunin checking the seals in the doorframe. These seals were meant to keep the genin from wandering into the wrong section of the tower.

That section being the one she and the few chunin, plus Hayate (as the next round's proctor), would be staying in. The barrier was there, as Ai put it, to keep the snotty-nosed genin out of their stuff.

Ai made for the mess hall, where she distributed food to the proper places of storage. They would be here for five days and four nights, the vast majority of them would be filled with training, at least for her. What those other chunin would be doing, she had no clue. They probably wouldn't see a genin team until the third day.

Though Team Kurenai showed potential to arrive earlier.

Her stomach growled. Looking about, there were a couple of people in conversation with each other, but they were the only ones in the room and they didn't seem to have heard it. Shrugging, Ai decided she might as well start on brunch.

Some beef teriyaki sounded good, but did she want noodles or rice to go with it?

Noodles. Definitely noodles. And some vegetables, yes.

Cooking was one of the things she had learned since coming here, mostly because she was sick of eating out and sick of _getting_ sick on Hayate's food. He wasn't the best cook she'd ever met, which turned out to be a depressingly common trend among ninja.

"Food already?" It was Hayate's voice that asked from behind.

"I'm hungry and it's nothing special," she had basically put together a stir fry, though it was closer to Pad Thai really. "I made enough for everyone."

"Ai, you really are too kind."

"Keep it to yourself, you'll ruin my reputation."

"Especially the one you're building among this year's genin."

"I'm only doing my job," she defended.

"If you ever get tired of it I'm sure I can convince the Hokage to at least let you be a food nin–"

"Not that joke again," she interrupted waving the spoon she'd just used to scoop food at him. "I actually believed you about food nin. Not that I wanted to be one, but I believed you."

He gave her That grin. The one that said 'I'm trying to rile you and you know it, but you're still going to get upset.'

Just as he was about to speak she sent the bowl skidding down the counter. He was forced to body flicker to catch it before it hit the ground.

She received a dirty look in response.

It was at that moment that Iruka walked in. He raised an eyebrow at the pair. Hayate still hunched over from catching the food and Ai's arm guiltily pushed out from tossing said food.

"Can you believe her? She's willing to hurl food just to get me to stop talking." Ai started on making a second bowl.

Iruka was unimpressed. "Are you two ever going to behave?"

"I guess you won't want anything… to eat then." The bowl was out of her hand before she finished. Honestly, ninja and food had a disturbing relationship. She got to work on a third bowl. By now word had somehow spread and others were showing up to get their own food. It wasn't that she was an amazing, or even great, cook, but it was fresh, she hadn't burned it, and seriously, _anything_ was better than the food that was stocked here.

She had just finished serving herself when a chime rang out. A hush briefly fell over the gathered ninja as a screen flicked to life. Displayed on the monitor was one of the entrance rooms, inside stood three figures.

"A team already?" Muttered a ninja Ai had never met before.

She looked towards Hayate. His eyes were narrowed as she studied the team on screen. He was suspicious and that raised Ai's guard.

"You should probably get down there," he finally spoke.

"Yeah," she sighed, putting down her bowl on the counter. So much for food.

Ai turned to walk away, but a hand brushing her arm stopped her.

"Be careful," Hayate warned. "Genin-level shinobi do not finish so quickly." She nodded in acknowledgement.

Outside the door, Abel rattled and stood as she moved past him, letting her know he would be watching.

※※※※※

"How are we supposed to get out of here," Kankuro wondered aloud, looking for a door. Moments after the words left his mouth a portion of the wall slid away.

"Welcome to…" the figure paused, "you know, I don't even know what this tower is called." The form stepped out from the shadowed doorway.

Kankuro was surprised, she was young. Younger than he was expecting anyway. She was maybe his age and wearing a too-large Konohagakure vest, dark pants and a purple shirt with a red flower reaching across her midsection. Her blonde hair was pulled haphazardly up, her eyes were light blue and bored, but nowhere on her could he spot her Konoha headband.

"If you'll follow me, I'll show you where you'll be staying until the end of the second exam." Her eyes slipped across them, pausing just milliseconds longer on Gaara than on him or Temari. She stepped out of the doorway and gestured for them to go through.

Gaara immediately moved forward. He and Temari followed a second after. When he passed her into the short hallway, he reached out and touched her with his chakra. Her chakra was just barely above that of a civilian's, which confused him. If she wasn't a ninja, was she just wearing a leaf's vest as a show she was in charge? He supposed it made sense; a shinobi wouldn't listen to a civilian without good reason.

"So, are you our tour guide or something?" he asked. The small smirk that formed on her face was secretive.

"Or something," she replied in a not very reassuring tone.

She fell into step beside him as they moved through the hallway. It opened quickly into a larger central room. The ceiling rose away, leaving all the floors exposed.

"This is the central room," the girl began to talk on they had emerged. "There really isn't anything down here, but you may notice on the other side, there are stairs." She moved forward to be in front of them. "We will be taking the ones on the left. The stairs to the right are warded to keep you out unless you have the proper identification." She turned around, walking backwards. "So don't bother trying. Now, the left."

"Wait, hold on." Temari finally spoke, interrupting the girl turning around. "What's through that doorway there?" She gestured to the huge set of doors between the two stairwells. The girl sighed like Temari had just asked her to donate her every last ryō to charity.

She moved to the doors and pulled one side open. "It's another room. More specifically, it is the room in which you will gather in at the conclusion of the second stage. Congratulations, you have one-hundred and eighteen hours and twenty minutes." She slammed the door shut. "You'll love it here." She moved back to the left stairwell. "Onwards and upwards."

Once they arrived on the landing to the second floor she began talking again. "On this floor you'll find a kitchen and a communal gathering area. The kitchen does not come pre-stocked; however I suppose you can heat up your lizard jerky, or whatever it is you eat in a desert."

Kankuro clenched his fist as rage flared through him. How dare she say something like that! He could see Temari's face had hardened as well.

"Third floor!" she called, moving up the continuing stairs, completely ignorant of what she'd just done. Kankuro did note, however, that Gaara simply followed her passively. He supposed pot-shots at Hidden Sand didn't bother him as much as it did his siblings.

Once again on the landing she stopped. "Here you'll find the bunk rooms, there are three and they are all identical. The first and last doors in the hallway are washrooms." She then turned and made direct eye contact with him. "May I suggest a shower." Kankuro clenched his jaw. He was going to strangle her. She sighed before saying, "There is also a fourth floor you may visit. It has an area you can train in, or not, it's up to you. Higher access is blocked off."

"Unless we have the 'proper identification'?" he questioned her waspishly.

"You catch on so quickly." He was going to strangle her _and_ enjoy every moment of it. "Your jonin teacher will be notified of your success. Enjoy your stay." She turned to walk back down the stairs.

"Hey!" he shouted at her. "You didn't give us your name!"

"No, I don't suppose I did." She didn't even turn back.

"I am going to kill her," he growled.

※※※※※

Ai entered the mess hall once again. All her food had been eaten, but they ninja here were kind enough to leave her bowl of food untouched. And let it get room temperature. Ah, ninja thoughtfulness. She sighed, grabbing it up.

"You good?" Hayate asked as she sat down next to him. Across the way was Iruka.

"Don't get me wrong, I enjoy antagonizing people, but being a complete bitch leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

"That just means you still have a heart," Hayate reached over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her towards him.

"Eeeeh, feelings are gross," she whined, pushing away.

"Keep in mind; you have a job to do," he talked over Ai's 'I know,' "and you really were the best choice."

"That sand team gave me a heebies though," she stirred her food mindlessly. "Particularly the red-head, Abel told me his chakra is completely unstable." Iruka's eyebrows crumpled together and Hayate went silent. After a few moments he spoke.

"It seems best you avoid the sand team when you can. Stick to escorting the passing teams in, all right?"

"Sure," Ai agreed. That sand-nin, Gaara, really did give her the willies though. Through the whole thing he hadn't reacted once. His siblings had shown signs, but not him. It was like she was little more than a fly on the wall to her. Not that it seemed to be a bad thing per se; she had noticed how far the other two had stood from him.

"Eat your food; we'll get some training in."


	3. Ch3 - Are you Insane Like Me

I'm a bad person. I've been distracted between school, work, and video games. Oh and I forgot the disclaimer... in case any of you thought otherwise, no, I don't own Naruto. Thank you for reading, sorry for the delay.

Oh! And a Thank You for all the Favorites, Follows and Reviews!

* * *

Silver Streams

Are you Insane like me

※

It was a good number of hours later, after night had rolled in, that another team arrived.

"Ai," Hayate kicked the corner of her bed. "There's another team."

"I'm up, I'm up," she groaned, flipping off her sheets. She ruffled her hair before grabbing, most of, it and pulling it into a high ponytail. Ai shuffled out the door, heading for the entrance room that the new team would be waiting in. Abel clacked his metal shoulders, telling her which room she was looking for and reprimanding her for not asking in the first place.

"Yeah, yeah," she said to him. "Why ask when I know you'll tell me." He clattered his disapproval, but not his disagreement she noted.

Ai went downstairs and headed in the correct direction, thanks to Abel. She did have to make a slight detour to avoid the Sand team, which wasn't hard; she knew all the hidden passages. It seemed they had apparently decided to do a little exploring on their own.

Pulling open the appropriate door, she revealed Team Kurenai. She felt brief satisfaction at being able to predict their early arrival.

"Welcome to Tower –" she stopped talking. The team was huddled close together watching the dog curled up in the Inuzuka's jacket. Her words had caught their attention though and the group turned towards her.

Physically they looked like they hadn't had a rough time of it in the woods. Mentally however, it looked like they had seen the gates of hell open up and swallow someone whole.

 _Sandpaper over wood. Screaming. Red rain, thick and warm._

Ai winced at the sound, but it had certainly lent the theory some credibility.

She supposed she could put off the whole 'she-was-an-unpleasant-person' show she'd been asked to run.

"If you follow me, I can take you somewhere you all can rest."

They approached her and Kiba spoke as they neared, "You're the girl from the first exam."

"I see I make an impression."

"I imagine it's hard not to, the way you behaved." Ai smirked at him and shrugged.

"Come along," she said, walking away. The sound of their footsteps followed. Ai turned around, walking backwards. "I'm going to give you all a heads up; the Sand shinobi beat you here." The three members of Team Kurenai exchanged quick looks. "I'm also going to say, I'd avoid them if I were you."

"Yeah, good idea," Kiba snorted. Ai cocked a brow. "We came across them in the forest," Kiba elucidated, "the red-headed one killed a Rain team without batting an eye. We thought they were going to kill us too." The dog whimpered.

"I see," she said distractedly, turning around to climb the stairs. The more she learned about this Gaara fellow the more concerned she got. When she'd first met them, she had certainly picked up that he was dangerous, what shinobi wasn't, but all the voices had been drowned out by the sound of, well now she figured it was sand, but at the time it had sounded like a rain stick. Fifty rain sticks. It'd been headache inducing.

Abel had said his chakra was shifting and unstable. Like sand, she supposed. Ai was picking up a theme with the kid. But would he really attack the people here? She couldn't be sure. Not one hundred percent anyway.

She'd also feel terrible if something did happen and she'd done nothing when she could have done something.

"…and now we've got to spend four days here with them!? Man, this sucks!" She hadn't even noticed Kiba talking. Was that bad?

Ai stopped on the second floor landing, forcing Team Kurenai to stop as well.

"Look," she started, "I'm not supposed to interfere, so I'm going to as passively and sneakily as I can. I'll put a watch on your door at night. However, I have stipulations. Don't wander alone and don't wander at night. There shouldn't be a problem during the day since everyone will be awake."

"H- How are you going to watch at night," it was the first time Hinata had spoken. "You need to rest sometime too."

"That's where Abel comes in."

"Abe-el," Kiba tested the name. Everyone tested the name. It wasn't remotely culturally near the naming scheme here. It had caused a number of interesting looks to be tossed in her direction, but she had been a child when she'd named him and it had felt… appropriate.

"We'll walk down this way; there are stairs at the other end. Sand picked Northern bunk room, so you guys will take the farthest from them," she continued walking.

"Y- You don't think they'd d-do something, do you?"

"I don't _think_ they would," Ai glanced over her shoulder at the young team, "but I don't trust them not to. It's better to be safe than sorry, after all."

"Yeah, that Sand village squirt is bad news and _way_ too dangerous to mess with."

Ai pushed open the door to the bunk room. As they passed she added, "Bathroom is the door we passed, on the left. Second floor has a mess hall and a communal area and bottom floor isn't really much, but through the big double doors is where you'll all meet up once the exam officially ends."

"T- Thank you," Hinata demurred, "for your help."

"Ah, um, don't mention it," Ai murmured then added stronger, "Seriously though, don't mention it. I'll get in trouble."

"Not a word," Kiba agreed.

Ai nodded. "Good. You thr- four," she corrected, remembering the dog – what was his name? – she'd have to check the files. "You four should get some rest."

The young Leaf team thanked her quietly, Shino nodding his head, as they moved further into the room. Ai closed the door after they'd passed, heading to the half wall across the way.

"Abel," she called softly. The metal cat dropped down from the floor above with nary a sound and looked at her. She didn't even need to say anything before the cat slid off the wall and circled in front of the door twice, sitting down to the side of the entrance like a komainu.

With a sigh, Ai headed back to bed. As she crawled back in she reached down into her bag and pulled out a thin, short metal rod. She held it in her hand, pushing her chakra into it, as she settled in to sleep.

 _Faint sound caught the attention, pulling from torpor. Facing upward. Small jump to the wall, only a few bounds to climb higher._

 _Gentle landing, flick of the tail, arriving in time to see the purple-haired one passing into room across the way. Odd look, pale skin._

 _Followed by two masked ones, radiating danger._

 _The beak-mask stops, turns, looks, sees. Shiver of limbs, tinkling of metal. Beak-mask turns away, slowly, follows others into room._

 _Return._

 _Slide down, back to guard. Silent on the wall._

 _Listen._

 _Dry rustle._

 _Red movement._

 _Sand appears down the way. Turns, looks, sees. Meet the gaze._

 _Chatter the teeth. Clack the ribs._ You're not like the others.

 _Hold contact. Red Sand turns, leaves. Away from guard._

 _Quiet again._

The pulse of chakra running through Ai's hand woke her with a jolt. Anko had come in tonight? She was early, why? She shouldn't have been here for at least another day. Not only that, but she'd appeared exhausted and with members of Anbu. What in the world was going on outside the tower?

Also, worryingly, Gaara was wandering around. She didn't know if he had wanted to try anything, Abel hadn't sent anything about intentions, or if he had just heard the disturbance Anko had made arriving, either way, she'd continue to keep an eye on him. Just to be safe.

Ai sighed, sitting up. Why couldn't he have bothered sending this information later, when she had been awake. With all this tumbling around in her mind, she wasn't going to get to sleep anytime soon. She tucked the metal rod back into her pack and got up. Changing into a set of training clothes Ai grabbed up her sword, an extra set of clothes, and left.

When she got to an upper floor training room she stripped off the thin beaded bracelet she wore. Once off, her chakra, which had been curled into a tight ball, released and spread out.

"Ah man," she moaned. "That feels so much better." Ai flexed her chakra pushing and pulling it. Sending it down limbs and letting it seep into the air around her just a bit. She tossed the chakra suppressing bracelet onto her extra set of clothes.

Ai drew her blade, Moon Shadow, and began her katas. She lost herself to them, the patterned movement and rhythmic breathing. Hayate had always said it was just as equal to meditation and he was right. The world fell away and troubles were forgotten. At least for the moment.

"You're up early," a voice said gently. "Trouble sleeping?"

"A bit," Ai replied, finished up. She sheathed her katana with a soft click. "Anko came in last night – well, early this morning."

Hayate didn't even bat an eye at her somehow knowing this information already. He was used to her knowing things she shouldn't. "Yes, she did, I've spoken with her already."

"Anything the rest of us should worry about?"

"Perhaps. A Grass genin team was found dead," Ai raised an eyebrow. Dead genin was hardly _unusual_. "They were found outside the training grounds and they were killed before the second exam began."

 _That_ would be the unusual bit then.

"I'd like you to keep an eye on in-coming genin for anything odd."

"Sure," Ai agreed. "Anything odd, like that Sand-genin, Gaara, wandering around at night?"

Hayate blinked slowly, which to anyone who knew him knew it was his equivalent to a sigh. "Keep an eye on him." Ai nodded her consent. "You might also be called on to," he coughed a couple of times, "-to follow someone, so keep prepared for that as well."

"I'll get my bugs then."

"It probably won't be until after the exam, but I figured I'd let you know."

"Thanks," Ai said as she gathered her stuff. She hooked her finger in the chakra-suppressing bracelet and started to twirl it on her finger. Even there, she could feel it beginning to pull at her chakra, which began to bubble and boil in response.

"You katas are looking better," Hayate finally spoke as they left the room together.

"They're feeling better," she replied, toweling at the sweat on the back of her neck.

A small smile graced his face. "We might make a swordsman out of you yet."

"I prefer swordswoman," Ai said flippantly, twisting her hand to get the bracelet to slide over her knuckles and onto her wrist. It was like someone had quenched the warmth of her chakra as it was forced back into that heavy weight within her gut. Nausea rose and she stopped, leaning a shoulder on the wall and a hand on her stomach. Hayate placed a hand on her back. "The worst part is putting it back on."

"Four more days, then you don't have to wear it again."

Ai took a few measured breaths until the worst of the feeling had passed. As she straightened Hayate gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Better?"

"Yeah," she breathed out. "I'm going to get cleaned up, then I'll find something to do around here."

Hayate nodded, releasing her shoulder. "I need to tell a few others what's happening. Eyes open," he added moving off.

"Yes, sir." He nodded once more before vanishing with a body flicker. When he was gone, Ai groaned. "Why can nothing ever be simple?" She went to go lean on the rib-high wall and stare down at the bottom floor four levels below. Even with the two teams here now, silence still ruled the tower.

It was as Ai stared out, that Abel – the eavesdropping nag that he was – he rattled his tail indignantly at her accusation – showed up. He climbed up from the floor below holding a cloth bag gently in his mouth, lest his teeth rip holes in the fabric. It jangled as he deposited it in her hand.

"Thanks," she murmured. Abel slid off the wall before walking behind her and putting his head into the side of her right knee to get her to start moving. She obeyed his push and made for the stairs so she could shower.

The water proved a good relaxer and washed away the remaining unpleasant feelings left by the chakra suppressor. She also, like any 'good ninja on duty,' only took a short shower, though she did crank the heat. Nothing like a hot shower to steam away your troubles.

Afterwards, finding nothing else to do – this really was a boring posting while the exam was still going – she moved on to making bread. She figured someone would find her if they needed anything.

It was nearing midday and while she was half-way through making a second loaf of challah bread, also not a thing here, that she heard a disturbance.

Said disturbance came in the sound of a bark by her feet. When she looked down, Kiba's white puppy was sitting a foot away staring at her.

"Well someone's slacked off," she said to the white puppy. His response was to look between her and the cooling loaf of her first bread sitting on the countertop. They stared at each other for another minute before Ai turned away with a huff. "I'm such a sucker for cute." She ripped a hunk off the end and crouched down in front of the small dog. "Akamaru, right?" she asked rhetorically. She'd gone and read the files of the passing teams just to refresh herself. Even so, Akamaru barked and moved forward, eating the bread out of her hand greedily. It only took a few bites before the bread was gone and her hand covered in saliva. "Technically that was interfering," she told the dog as she wiped the drool off on her pants. He only whined and looked at the loaf still sitting on the counter. "No, I'm putting my foot down this time. Let's go find that ninja of yours that apparently doesn't pay enough attention to you," she said standing.

Akamaru trotted behind her as she headed out of the room. She watched carefully as he plopped down the stairs clumsily, but made no move to pick him up, as cute as he was, he was still a nin-dog. One does not simply pick up a strange dog, especially one trained to fight.

Once back on the first floor, Akamaru took the lead, jogging in front of her. Ai followed, figuring he smelled Kiba. Her belief proved correct when she heard said ninja cry out.

"Akamaru! I've been looking for you everywhere!" The white pup took off at a sprint picking up speed before jumping up into Kiba's arms. When the boy looked back up from the dog he spotted Ai. His brows furrowed at the sight of her.

"He wandered into the employees only section," Ai explained.

"Oh," he said, rubbing Akamaru's head. "I can't really blame him. The smells coming from there are torturous." Ai gave a small smile. "Can't see and can't hear anything, but all the smells of your guy's food leaks out. It's driving us up the wall."

"Part of life, I suppose." Kiba raised an eyebrow so Ai expounded further. "People or things driving you up the wall; it's something you have to get used to in life."

"Right," he said slight confusion in his voice. He opened his mouth to say something else, but stopped as Ai tilted her head, listening to a soft ring. She looked up at a voice.

"Juniper room, Ai," the ninja called down, unconcerned with the Genin that could neither see or hear him. She turned back to the young ninja. He had also been looking up where she had been, but the squint to his eyes and the twitch of his nose said that while he couldn't see the person up there, he had smelled them. Maybe that was something she should bring up for the next exam.

"I have some work I need to do, but I'm sure I'll be seeing you around," she said to him.

"Sure," he agreed.

Ai moved off, heading for Juniper room to meet whatever team had shown up. "What was his name?" she uttered to herself, thinking about the ninja who had called down from above. She'd seen him around a lot during the prep portions of the exam. She always wanted to call him Kotatsu, but that was the heating table, so she knew it was wrong. Unless, she supposed, his parents were just that mean.

The team waiting in Juniper turned out to be Team Guy. Two of them looked fine, but the third one in green spandex, Lee, she recalled, looked as if he had had his rear handed to him and firmly. She could hear a strange echoing sound around him which took her a moment to figure out that it was him and not just her ears ringing.

"Welcome to Tower Forty-Four," she intoned dully. "If you'll follow me, I show you the places you can go while in the tower. Ai moved to leave, but the three genin remained where they were. "Or stay here, no skin off my back." Either that was enough encourage them or they'd finally shaken themselves from whatever reverie they'd been lost in, Ai didn't really care, for they moved to follow her. Though, not without a narrow-eyed stare from one Neji Hyuga. He had apparently practiced it to perfection.

As they walked Ai talked, keeping up a steady stream of commentary. Ranging from asking if they had seen any unique life in the forest, like the drop bear, known for its surprise attacks from above and how she'd always wanted to see one, to the history of Tower Forty-Four, which she completely made up. "It was built during the Drop Bear Wars, you know, almost drove the species extinct, but that's all very hush-hush." Lee seemed fully enraptured, but the dead-eyed look of Tenten and Neji made the constant talking worth it.

The three genin remained steadfastly silent the whole way, Lee too enthralled to interrupted she supposed, and it wasn't until they reached the main chamber that Ai said something useful.

"Those doors down there will be where the passing teams will meet once the exam is officially over,"

"Can we check them out?" Tenten asked.

"Sure," Ai agreed with a shrug, "there's nothing there to really see, but by all means." She gestured to the door, figuring the strategist in Tenten wanted to scope out the next area. Not a bad idea, Ai supposed, though there really was nothing special about the room.

Ai fell into step by the trailing Neji; he gave her a look, but otherwise ignored her presence. When Tenten and Lee entered the room, Ai slid in front of him, stopping Neji from following his teammates. His eyebrow rose so elegantly at her that Ai felt a brief flash of jealousy over the graceful motion.

"I need to speak with you," she cut to the chase. "You might not want to, but I _strongly_ suggest you bunk with your fellow Leaf-nin who have made it here already." He narrowed his eyes with a question that didn't need to be asked.

 _Why are you telling me this?_

"There is a Sand team here as well and the youngest's chakra is… unstable. Safety in numbers, blah blah." When he didn't say anything back and only stared at her instead, Ai decided to leave. "I'm sure you can figure out the rest of the tower. It's not particularly difficult." It was as she turned away that he spoke.

"You're not a civilian." Ai faced him, crossing her arms and cocking her hip. "However, you are not a ninja either. You were given that vest as a display of authority; such an action forces the genin of the exam to listen to you."

"Hammer me nail."

"You are a plant. A test within a test."

"I heard you were pretty… smart," Ai said, pausing just long enough to make sure he understood it was intentional. The narrowing of his eyes conveyed his notice of the slight. "You're right, I am. Not every client that you might have to work with will be enjoyable. But this? Right here, right now, is advice, not part of the exam. If you don't believe me, check for yourself. I imagine you should be able to see him with those eyes of yours."

Neji didn't look away from her, but she could tell he was pulling into himself, drawing on his chakra. With a muttered 'Byakugan,' veins bulged around his eyes and she could feel his focus drift away from her.

Ai did however feel pressure increase in her head, like the beginning of a headache. . _Gilded bars, broken wings. Some birds never fly._ She rubbed at the center of her forehead where most of the building pressure lay. Honestly, why couldn't the voices speak plainly? What the hell did a bird have to do with anything going on right now? She shoved it aside, back into its mental mind corner and returned her attention to the ninja before her.

What Neji saw, Ai couldn't know for sure, she only had the vaguest idea of what the Byakugan was capable of doing, but she did know it could see chakra and if he could see half of what she heard in her mind concerning Gaara, he wouldn't argue with her anymore.

It took a few moments until she felt that primordial and unexplainable sensation of someone watching her return and it was a few heartbeats later that Neji's Byakugan faded. He didn't say anything, but from the new look in his eyes, Ai got the feeling that he wasn't going to debate with her about bunking with his fellow Leaf genin.

"All right then," She muttered. "I'll get going."

Once again Neji kept her from leaving.

"Continuous wear of a chakra suppressor can cause permanent damage."

"Gee, thanks mom," she faced him with crossed arms. "I'll make sure to take it off before I go to bed, happy?" Neji remained impassive to her sass. She rolled her eyes and lessened the sarcasm. "I know about suppressors and I take the proper precautions."

"The current state of your chakra suggests you have had training, you are allowed to participate in something as important as the Chunin Exams, yet you are not a ninja. Why?"

"I don't think that's really any of your business."

It was at that moment that his teammates reemerged from the other room. She really didn't want to have this conversation in front of other people. However, Neji didn't let up.

"Are you aware you possess three chakra affinities?"

"Yes, Doctor, I am," she snapped.

"Such a thing is rare, yet with suitable training someone with three affinities should be able to become an adept shinobi. Are you simply that inept?"

"God, fine!" she called out, throwing up her arms. "Since you're so concerned, I'm not a shinobi because I'm not from here! I came from Lightning; I even spent time in Hidden Cloud! They probably all think I'm some sort of spy! I've had training because the Hokage probably doesn't want me blowing up a school! My chakra is volatile at best and I can't really control it! My three affinities like to mix and go off in a vapor explosion! Be glad I'm wearing this suppressor!" She didn't add that that only happened when she had a panic attack. Fear seemed to be its key ingredient, but they didn't need to know that. Ai took a deep breath, god, she was so stressed out right now.

Tenten and Lee were staring at her in shock and something akin to pity. She recalled that Lee himself had chakra related problems and probably felt he could relate with her. Ai sincerely hoped her didn't want to suddenly become best of friends all of a sudden. One; she didn't want to be friends, and two; her friends had a horrible habit of dying or otherwise disappearing. Neji face was completely passive, however, which was something of a relief. She could feed off his calm façade and use it to relax herself. A passive face went a long way.

The silence lasted a few seconds before it was broken, thank God, she could see an inspiring speech building on Lee's face, by an annoying voice, not quite so thank God.

"Good to see everyone else gets the same crap tour we did. Nice to know it isn't nation specific."

Ai turned to face Kankuro. Temari was beside him, but Gaara was off on his own staring out into space or whatever. "If you have a problem with the tour you can leave your critique in the suggestion box."

"And where's that?"

In a combination of headache, lack of sleep, and stress, the words just slipped out. "Up your ass if you don't shut your mouth!"

Ai realized a second too late that _she_ should be the one shutting her mouth because this time, for whatever reason, what she said caught Gaara's attention and he turned his aquamarine eyes on to her full force. The tension in the room went up as he continued to stare at her and Ai sudden felt vaguely similar, she supposed, to how a mouse would feel when being stared down by a cat. The sound of grating sand increased the pressure on her head and she couldn't tell if it was from outside her own skull or not, but the side eyes Gaara's siblings where giving him suggested it might not be.

Tension was broken by a high-pitched whirring, just like the sound of a dentist's drill, only louder. It was joined seconds later by rattling metal, clacking together as if a rattlesnake's tail was filled with metal instead. Ai knew the sound with great familiarity. It was Abel's warning, the sound he would make before coming to her defense.

Eyes shifted upwards, searching, but Abel was not visible. The sound cut off shortly after Gaara's gaze was broken from her, Abel having succeeded in his intention.

Ai took that time to take a few relaxing breaths, pulling the frayed edges of herself back together. The quiet was broken by Lee.

"Was that the drop bear?" he asked, worry lacing his tone.

Ai closed her eyes and took another deep breath. "Yes, that was a drop bear." She shoved her hands in her pocket and beat a hasty retreat back to the 'employees only' section of the tower. She was so done with today.

Hayate met her at the top of the stairs, he didn't look overly happy. "What happened?" He asked each word carefully pronounced. " _Everyone_ heard Abel go off."

"Sorry," she practically whined. "I guess I made Gaara mad, or, I don't know. I guess he wasn't too keen on me touching his brother's –" Hayate held out his hand, palm facing her. The other one went to his face, fingers massaging his forehead.

"Just, stop right there, I don't want to hear it." Ai dropped her eyes, seemed the stress was getting to everyone today.

Abel slid down from above, moving to her and arching his back into the side of her thighs like a cat begging for attention.

"Next time," Hayate started, "and I don't care what they say, just turn around and walk away. We don't need this situation getting any worse."

"Situation?" She looked back at him.

Instead of answering Hayate slid a hand across her head, ruffling her hair and forcing her to look away. He then followed his own advice by turning around and walking away. "Find something to do that isn't antagonizing the Sand shinobi."

"Sure," she agreed halfheartedly, though she did intend to listen to him. Not that she purposely ignored his first 'avoid the Sand team.'

Abel bumped her again. Looking to him she crouched down to be more on his level, he tilted his blank face down at her. "You know, maybe I ought to blame you for this." Abel tilted his head. "Why'd you have to try to talk to him?"

Abel rattled. The sensation she got from last night returned. _You're not like the others._

"So, he's different. Lots of people are different, that doesn't mean you've tried to talk to them before." He only clacked his saw-blade teeth, reinforcing the earlier feeling. "Whatever," she muttered, turning to lean her back against the wall.


	4. Ch4 - Are you in Pain Like Me

_I'd like to apologize (not really, it was so not my fault), since I posted my last chapter I kept feeling ill off and on, then I did get pretty sick (unrelated it seems), then two weeks later I ended up in the ER followed shortly by the OR, where I got half an organ removed because it decided to grow extra bits and then one of those extra bits exploded and made my life difficult and very, very painful, followed by filling up with loads of blood. After five days of recovery (which probably wasn't enough) I went back to classes where I started and continued to play a horrible game of catch-up with school and I'm surprised I haven't gotten an ulcer with the stress. Heads-up, abdominal surgery sucks, but it could be a lot worse._

 _Also, this chapter is brought to you by my cat's butt. Every time I sat down to work on it he either shoved his butt in my face or put it on the keyboard. I also don't own Naruto, or any of the lyrics you may or may not recognize._

 _Thank you to everyone who 'did the thing.' You know, Favorite, Review, Alert. I got you all a semi-long chapter. I hope you enjoy my... hmmm... oddities. I swear there is method to this madness. Oh, and I made a companion piece 'Silver Slivers.' Check it out, it will contain things I cut, feel makes the story kinda chunky, or just plain doesn't fit. Sorry for the long note ( I did feel I had to explain my absence). Danke._

* * *

Silver Streams

Are you in Pain like me

※

It was Hayate coughing that woke her up that night. Abel took a brief moment to inform her that it had been, and still was, quiet by the Leaf genin. She shook off the sensation as Hayate finally acknowledged her and apologized.

"Sorry," he said, his throat rough from the hacking.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "It seems like your cough has been getting worse."

"It's probably the stress of the exams exasperating it."

"You and everyone else here," she said. She had noted yesterday when she'd returned upstairs that everyone seemed to be treading just a bit more lightly and felt just a bit more strained. Ai made a move to get up. "I'll get you some water."

Hayate waved her off, standing, "Don't bother, I'll get some myself. You go back to sleep." Ai watched him leave the room they shared, which by the way, it was _far_ nicer on the chunin and above side of the tower. She rolled the metal rod between her hands contemplatively before laying back down. Hayate returned some time later, but didn't say anything about the fact she was still awake.

Her sleep was rough on the best of nights, usually plagued by nightmares. There wasn't much they could do about it, but Hayate tried his best to let her rest as often as he could and she frequently tried to return the favor. She lost more often than not.

 _The sound of sand, or perhaps dry snake skin, drags across the ground. Children giggle, shadows run and dance._ Olly Olly Oxen Free. _Fire rains from the sky, setting the ground ablaze. Screaming starts._

 _She is grabbed from behind._

Ai woke with a sharp intake of breath. Sitting up, she rubbed her head, noting that Hayate was gone. She had managed to doze off into that strange, dreaming-yet-awake stage where her dreams are more surreal than anything else.

She hated that stage.

Rolling out of bed, Ai got ready for the day. Putting on more comfortable clothes, this shirt with Irises, and that overly large – tacky – green vest.

It turned out to be completely boring day, filled with a good portion of training. Iruka had joined this time, and Abel the lazy cow he was, didn't even help her defend herself until Iruka had nearly hit her with a kunai. She'd panicked and blown it out of the air inches from her shoulder. She was surprised she hadn't gotten a shard of metal in her flesh for her trouble. Iruka apologized for the start he'd given her, but he was used to her panic explosions at this point, anyone who trained with, and knew Ai well, was.

The most exciting, and interesting, part, however, turned out to be when she was making dinner.

"Are you insane like me? Been in pain like me?" she murmured under her breath, not quite singing. "Bought a thousand ryō bottle of sake like me? Just to pour it down the drain like me?"

"Did you really?" a voice interrupted. She turned to find Kakashi standing in the doorway. "Because that seems like a huge waste. Also, I'd like the name of the person that sold to you, you're obviously underage."

"What are you doing here? Your team hasn't passed, you know." The eye smile he gave her was strained.

"Oh, just escorting a few jonin in." He moved further in, ignoring the fact that he still shouldn't be here, escorting or not, and allowing Guy and Kurenai to pass him. The two studied her briefly, with the latter giving her a gentle smile, before moving on into the room. Following at a slightly larger distance was the Sand team's sensei, Baki. He seemed thoroughly uncomfortable to be so surrounded by Leaf shinobi.

Now she felt a little embarrassed, they had probably all heard her singing to herself. At least she'd decided to drop the f-bomb from the lyrics.

"Don't burn the place down," Kakashi said as he passed her.

"I'll burn the place down if I want to," she muttered to his back. Ai glanced at the still loitering Baki. "You can have some of the food too, if you want," she added, "I get the whole 'prepare it yourself' thing, but the offer stands."

He had to practically turn to look at her due to half his face being covered. Another interesting choice in the world of shinobi fashion. He could be hiding a horrible disfigurement, Ai supposed, but with how many nasty scars she'd seen dotted around Konoha, it seemed a little strange. Then again, who was she to judge?

"And you are?" he asked

"No one of significant importance, so," Ai shrugged, "name's Ai." With that being said, she returned to the last batch of food cooking. Baki didn't say anything in return, which was fine with Ai. When she turned around with her own serving of food, she found that he had left at some point, curse ninja sneakiness, and had settled himself at a table some distance from everyone else. She went to join Hayate, who was once again sitting with Iruka. Ai paid no attention to what they talked about, only noting that it was interspersed with Hayate's coughs.

It wasn't until another presence joined them that Ai pulled herself from Lala Land. She looked up to see the dark-haired beauty that was Kurenai. Ai shifted her own eyes away from Kurenai's ruby ones. Eye contact with strangers put her off.

"You must be Ai, right?" Kurenai phrased it as a question, but Ai knew it was more of a statement than anything else, she obviously already knew the answer.

"That is what people keep calling me," Ai agreed.

"I've heard some interesting things about you." That was a good start, it usually ended with 'you're a complete nut-job.' Ai looked over to Hayate for any visual cues, but his face was blank. So blank it was like he was bored. "Hayate likes to keep you for himself, huh?" Ai blinked, looking back at Kurenai. She wore a teasing smirk as her own eyes shifted back to Ai from Hayate. "We hear rumors that Hayate took in a young girl, catch a couple glimpse of her around the village, but then he doesn't let us meet her for years."

Now it made sense, she was being nice to her. _Everyone_ knew about Crazy Ai by now. How she talked to her metal puppets and said strange things. How she claimed to hear things around her, how walls talked. Even Iruka gave her odd looks if she slipped up and talked to Abel in front of him.

"I'm not good at meeting people."

"You seem to be doing fine to me." Kurenai's smile was soft and gentle.

Ai bit back her 'you just don't know me very well then.'

"I look forward to seeing more of you around." Ai was pretty sure by that point her face showed nothing but disbelief. With a departing nod to Hayate, Kurenai left the room. Ai rounded on Hayate.

"What was that about?" she asked him, voice heavily laden with suspicion.

"I suppose Kurenai is under the impression that you are here as a test to see if you are qualified to become a shinobi.'

"And why would she be under that impression? Did she not get the same 'she is never becoming a ninja' memo that you and I got?"

"Despite you unwavering conviction, not everyone has heard those ridiculous rumors that you are crazy."

"I'll have to work harder then." Hayate sighed. Or at least it was a sigh to Ai. "And don't be so optimistic, _everyone_ has heard I'm crazy. Even Iruka thinks I'm crazy."

"I've never said that," said ninja interrupted. She turned and stared at him, his reluctance to meet and maintain eye contact meant that he had at least thought it as some time or another.

Point proven she looked back at Hayate.

"Don't you have something better to do?" He asked.

"No."

"Then find something."

Ai huffed, but got up and left anyway.

※※※※※

The rest of the days passed uneventfully, Ai greeted two more teams, another Leaf one, Team Ten, and the one from Sound, who were obnoxiously ringing and echoing in her head, like someone was tapping a metal rod on a metal fence every few seconds, letting the echoing ring almost die out before striking once more to renew the sound. It seemed they were the ones that had beat up Lee earlier that week.

Ai was quickly relearning that she hated people and being around them.

She had a few more disturbing dreams, which mostly consisted of fire and burning buildings, and Hayate kept coughing. His response to her worry was to merely state that he'd make sure to take better care after the exam.

People still remained on edge, Kakashi still hadn't left even though his team wasn't at the tower, and Ai wasn't told why. Any questions she asked were answered with 'you don't need to concern yourself with it,' which was polite speak for 'you aren't allowed to know, it's ninja business.' She got the feeling that something had gone wrong – obviously – but what exactly, beside the murder of a Grass team, was kept from her, but the itch on the back of her neck got a lot worse after the Sound team arrived.

The only thing she knew was that she might need to tail someone after the exam. She was a prime choice, one of a few people in the village that didn't have to follow physically to observe another.

Oddly, Abel reported the Hokage arriving a full twenty-four hours before the exam was to end. The Hokage immediately retreated to the highest level of the tower, where even she couldn't go and where Anko seemed to still be residing. It was strange, because surely, he had better things to do in the wait time than hang around the tower for a day.

Ai was beginning to feel that between all the things piling up and everyone else acting as if things were normal, but were actually hyper alert for anything strange, she was becoming paranoid.

It was late into the evening, the end of the exam was looming and Ai, procrastinating, was lounging on the highest floor she could get, which wasn't really _that_ high, and staring down to the lower floors. She watched a few of the genin wander on the other side, going about their new nightly rituals, when she spotted Gaara as far up as he could get as well. He was sitting on the wall, leaning against a pillar, appearing to be doing the same as her to the best of his abilities, and angle.

She continued to study him and he must have felt like he was being watched because his head turned up and his eyes began to scan her side of the tower. Gaara seemed to possess some preternatural sense, for it didn't take him long to focus in on her spot and even though she knew he couldn't see her, she felt like he was making eye contact.

From there she could feel her chakra, despite the suppressor, boiling in agitation as white static filled her ears and mind.

 _His little whispers, love me, love me. That's all I ask for, love me, love me. He battered his tiny fist to feel something. Wondered what it was like to touch and feel something._

Ai jerk back into awareness with a gasp and a jerk, pulling away from the wall and Gaara's staring eyes. A presence shifted and Ai finally noticed another person with her.

Dread filled her as she recognized Baki. He was standing just beside where she had been a moment before, his hand outstretched. Had he touched her? Or had his presence and attempt alone been enough to pull her out of her waking daze? Either were not a pleasant situation. He didn't look shocked enough for the first option to be likely and it's not like she saw anything that said a transference took place. Perhaps the suppressor blocked it? Or, again, he hadn't even touched her and the resulting, and very bad, incident had been avoided. Those thoughts proved slightly calming and she released the breath she'd been holding.

She blinked at him and they both stood there awkwardly looking at each other in the hallway.

"You seemed lost," he stated diplomatically, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, that happens, I black out and talk to myself." If she could assign any adjective to Baki's face right then, it might would have been 'appalled.' "I hear voices from time to time, which means there is a pretty high probability that I'm crazy." The adjective shifted to 'concerned.' For his own welfare, not hers. "Just ignore anything I said."

After another few moments of awkwardness, Baki nodded his head once, just slightly, to her and beat a retreat from her presence. Once he was out of sight, Ai sighed, releasing the tension built up in her shoulders. With any luck the 'I'm crazy' speech would keep him from looking any deeper into what had happened.

When Ai was sure he was gone, she groaned and rubbed at her face. With a fair bit of trepidation, she crept back to the edge and looked over. Gaara was gone, which was, irrationally, a relief. "When it rains, it pours," she muttered to herself, "can't get a break in this stupid, cursed tower."

Running her hand through her hair, Ai headed downstairs in search of Hayate. She found him in quiet conversation with Kakashi, so she waited patiently out of earshot. They wrapped it up quickly soon after her arrival and Hayate waved her over. She waited a moment for Kakashi to leave, but when he didn't, she continued, uncomfortably.

"There… may have been an incident."

"What _sort_ of incident?" So that was where she'd learned that look from.

"You say that like I started a war or something." She could feel waves of amusement coming off of the silver-haired ninja nearby, so she sent him a glare. Hayate, however, wasn't as amused and his look told her to explain. "You know that Sand jonin? Baki?" Ai didn't know Hayate could look _less_ amused, but he could and did. "I may have told him I was crazy."

He didn't seem happy with her words, but tension eased out of his shoulders at her confession. "Sometimes I wish you'd stop telling people you were crazy."

"Only sometimes?"

"Did anything happen other than that?" He chose to ignore her comment.

Ai gave side eyes to the still lingering Kakashi, but if Hayate wasn't worried about him hearing, she supposed she shouldn't be either. It didn't make it any more comfortable, however. "Nothing really, I was staring out over the tower, watching the genin, I had just spotted Gaara when I blacked out, from there I possibly said some weird things with the Sand jonin present. Then I told him I was crazy," Ai shrugged a little bit.

Hayate closed the short distance between them, putting his arm around her back and settling a hand on her shoulder. The light pressure held a lot of comfort. "It'll be fine. The Chunin Exam will be over soon, then it will all be sorted out." The last part almost sounded like something he'd been telling himself. Ai nodded anyway.

"I'll get the names of the passing teams sorted into the RNG before I call it a night." Both ninja were looking at her questioningly, Kakashi more so than Hayate, as the latter was more used to her oddities. "I'm calling it that for 'random name generator,' but it actually stands for random number gen –" she cut herself off feeling heat growing in her face at their looks. Hayate's bemused, while Kakashi's was perplexed. "I'm just going to shut up and leave now." Ai pulled herself out from under Hayate's arm, but realized his intentions too late to dodge the ruffling of her hair.

He smiled at her as she left, but she couldn't help but feel that his eyes looked very tired.

The next morning was a bit of a surprise for her. An obnoxious surprise that she could have done without, seeing as she already woke up late and was running behind schedule.

"What do you mean two _more_ teams showed up?"

The spiky-haired ninja grinned. "I _mean_ , that two more teams showed up this morning. They barely got here in time, but they still managed it." He swung a folder at her that he probably would have hit her with if she hadn't put her hands up to catch it instead. "So, you better go plug them in before the preliminaries _actually_ start. You're already late."

"I know that," Ai yanked the folder the rest of the way out of his hand. The annoying man didn't stop grinning.

"Do you really have to antagonize her?" She heard his partner ask as she left.

"But she's just so fun to rile up. You better run if you want to get there in time! And don't forget your vest!"

Ai sent him a dirty look as she went through the door, but paused just barely past it. "Ah, dammit!" She really didn't have her vest. Hayate was going to give her that disappointed, pissed off look he perfected to guilt trip her. She took off running.

Despite going as fast as she dared, she was still late. Ai shouldered one of the large doors open as she worked the mic into her ear, folder tucked against her chest as she tried to fix her slipping vest.

Before her all the teams of passing genin had assembled in columns of their squads. Their backs were to her, but facing her was the gathered jonin sensei, a few of the chunin from the tower, the proctors of the pervious exams, and the Hokage. In front of them stood Hayate, his eyes on her.

There was that look.

" _Sorry,_ " she mouthed at him, maintaining a sedate jog as she passed to the left of the group of genin. It was at that moment, as she once again fixed her vest, that she slipped. Ai hit the ground and the papers in the folder scattered in a whoosh.

No one laughed at least, except that one a-hole named Kankuro. She knew it was him because she recognized his voice saying, "Aw, man, that looks like it hurt," in amusement. He was right, of course, if he meant the blow to her pride hurt.

Hinata broke out of her line and arrived as Ai got to her knees. "Let me help," she murmured quietly as she began collecting papers. Ai was already flicking her hand out, twitching her fingers to send strings of chakra flying. The only good news of today, so far, was that she didn't need to wear her suppressor. Her chakra practically lunged from her as it suctioned onto the loose papers Hinata had yet to grab. The papers came flying back to her with a jerk of her wrist and a curl of her fingers.

It wasn't a neat pile, but it was a pile she could live with. She scrambled to her feet, Hinata doing the same, but more elegantly. "Thank you," Ai acknowledged quietly, accepting the gathered papers from her. She spotted a small, shy smile in response from the girl before Ai high-tailed it to the front, fixing the papers as best she could as she went.

She didn't make eye contact with any of the others as she passed to the back of the room and through another hidden door in the wall by the elbow of the statue. As she was taking a set of stairs that brought her to the control room, she heard Anko's voice in her ear. "Gravity still working, Ai?" Her face was so red, but she refused to rise to it.

Instead, she shoved the door to the control room open, inside Abel was waiting for her. There were also two ninja working inside and lining one of the walls were the banks of a computer.

 _"All this garbage just to pull a pair of names out of a hat,_ " Ai thought bitterly. _"If they would just let me –"_

"Are those the names I need?" A voice interrupted her. He was an older ninja, brown-haired, and bespectacled, with his headband worn as a bandana. Mawa-something, though Ai was pretty sure he didn't work directly under Ibiki.

"In there somewhere, yeah," Ai handed over the rumpled folder. He looked at it thoroughly unimpressed with her if his narrowed eyes were anything to go by. "It was Team Seven and Team…" she wasn't actually sure if they had a number, "whatever Kabuto is on, if that helps."

His jaw tightened, but he turned his spinning chair back around and started typing. "You're not needed here," he told her brusquely.

"Ah, but I'm supposed to –"

"Not today," the ninja told her in the same tone, his eyes meeting hers through the reflection on the screen. "There's been a change of plans, go out and enjoy the preliminaries." He then proceeded to ignore her, which she made a face at.

 _"Whatever,"_ she hissed in her mind, _"Exactly what I want to watch. A bunch of kids beating each other up."_ Lacking anything better to do, though, she made her way out, taking a different path that would let her out on the second level to watch the matches.

"Stay here Abel," she held her hand out in a 'stay' command. Abel shivered his metal bones in acknowledgement and Ai pushed open the hidden door. She'd already closed the door before she noticed who was on this side of the observation decks. Directly to her left was the Sand Village team.

Kankuro's look he gave Ai at her arrival was just an unenthused as the one she gave him, but seeing as it would probably take a scene of unrivaled proportions to get one of them to leave, they let their dislike for the other slide. She sidled a few feet away, settling into a lean on the railing. She felt a soft prod at her chakra, someone was testing it and it boiled in response.

The intruding one creaked and clacked, like wood chimes rattling against each other. It also felt like a warmed stone on her skin. Ai turned and gave Kankuro a dirty look, he looked away and the chakra prod withdrew. She moved her attention to the arena one floor lower.

Below was the beginning set-up of a fight brewing between Sasuke and one of Kabuto's teammates. Kakashi obviously said something to his dark-haired student before ushering his other two students away and up the stairs of the opposite observation deck.

The moment Hayate cleared the match to start, the two fighters went at each other. In a swift bout of taijutsu, Sasuke had his opponent on the ground, who soon showed his unique talent of draining chakra. The fight continued in that vein and Ai found herself losing focus until about a minute later into the fight when Sasuke had kicked his opponent into the air and was shadowing below him. That was when she spotted something crawling across his skin.

 _"The hell?"_ she had just enough time to think before it crawled away and vanished. Then Sasuke beat his opponent into the ground. Literally. Winning the match. The defeated boy was taken away via stretcher by a trio of medics, they were followed moments later by Kakashi carting off an exhausted and chakra-drained Uchiha.

It was when the next two contestants had been called and made their way down to the arena, that something strange happened. The creepy sensei of the Sound team vanished in a puff and Anko's voice called in her ear over her mic, as Hayate called a halt to the match before it had even begun, not even a second after he was gone.

"This match will be temporarily postponed," he told the two genin.

"What, why?" The one from Sound protested.

"Ai!" Anko shouted in her ear causing her to wince.

"You don't need to shout," she snapped, putting her hand to hear ear.

"The man that just vanished in a body flicker, he's the one we want you to tail."

"Now?"

"Yes, now!" she was shouting again.

"All right, all right." Ai patted her pocket and swore quietly to herself, she didn't have her channeling rod. She glanced down at the railing she was leaning on. _"Well, it'll work."_ She looked down to her left. "Hands off the railing," she shouted down the line, "or I swear to God, I'll send a bolt of lightning through it." She didn't possess an ounce of lightning affinity, but they didn't know that and it turned out the only one that her threat applied to was Kankuro, who sent her the filthiest look before taking a step back.

She pulled the tie at her belt, loosening the pouch attached there. Ai grabbed the bottom of it and swung out, the contents, three hundred small spheres scattered in the wake of the arc. Just as gravity grabbed full hold and began pulling them down, Ai struck her metal band ring hard against the railing. As the sound rang out, she channeled her chakra into the railing, activating the spheres. Ai twitched her fingers and struck the metal once more with her ring. This time it was echoed by the spheres, which snapped open, revealing themselves to be small dragonflies, barely an inch long. With the third strike, Ai closed her eyes and tuned her chakra to the same frequency, joining in silently to the hum of her bug's wings.

Kankuro swore quietly under his breath as they began to spread throughout the room. Ai let them roam in and out between people, catching odd flashes of the room's occupants as she directed a few to fill the place the Sound teacher recently vacated, telling them to pick up the vestiges of his chakra.

It wasn't easy, the others kept picking up on Gaara's overpowering chakra due to his close proximity to her. She pushed, catching the vaguest sense of it.

 _Old, dry parchment. Fragile, snakeskin, bleached and baked too long in the sun._ It felt odd to her, leaving a bad taste in her mind. She sent it out to the rest. _"Find the source,"_ she commanded. The dragonflies swarmed, racing towards the ventilation ducts.

Ai gasped as a sharp pain lanced up her hand and pierced her chest. The shifting vision of the room jerked disturbingly. White static filled her ears.

 _Tonight, I'm so alone, this sorrow takes a hold._ The voice was silenced as everything changed.

Crying, it was always there, in the back of their minds. _There is only one thing that can heal a wounded heart. It's love, Gaara._ Eight small forms kneeling on the ground wept and screamed. The burning buildings around them cast dark shadows, twisted and bent. _Go away, Freak!_ A taller shadow marched before the children, it raised its arm. _Why, why me? Why is it always me? Kunai shot forward, sand rushed to his defense._ Eight gunshots sounded, slow, meaningful. It was always eight. Always. _Yashamaru. I've always hated you, Gaara. There was so much pain. Betrayal. Hatred. Love only yourself. You were never loved, Gaara. Never._ The buildings burned, fire rained from the sky, erasing every trace of what once was there. But she was alive, she'd survived. Something burned through her veins, a raging heat. It killed the others, they died coughing blood as their bodies turned to dust. _I will no longer love anyone else._ _I am alone. I am all that matters._

Ai's awareness finally managed to surface, to fight her way above the tumultuous ocean of sand. There was so much pain, pushing all directly into her head, right above her left eye. Drilling into her brain. She could feel their chakra mixing, fighting like two beasts, claws and teeth. _You were never loved. Never._ Ai grabbed, twisted, and snapped.

Blackness swept in.

※※※※※

Kankuro didn't have a _clue_ about what was going on. One moment that girl was demanding and pushy. Scattering and controlling hundreds of tiny, metal bugs and the next she gasped, yanking her hand away from the railing as if it had burned her. The metal bugs poured from the air, pinging and sprinkling everywhere making a sound like a short, heavy rainfall.

She stumbled back into the wall, clutching her head. He moved forward, arms out showing he meant no harm. "Hey, you all right?" When she lifted her head, she wasn't looking at him, he didn't think she heard his words at all. She stared past him, at another, and he had a pretty good idea of whom.

Glancing back, he saw Gaara, still facing forward, but slowly withdrawing his hand from the railing. His brother stared at the appendage, deliberately flexing it. _"Oh God, what has he done now?"_

When he looked back, her blue eyes hadn't left his brother, but an alarming change had occurred. Macabre tears of red ran down her cheeks and her breathing became worryingly uneven. Baki was at his side now.

Something struck with a dull thud on the other side of the wall.

"Tonight, I'm so alone," she started, "this sorrow takes a hold. Don't leave me, it's so cold." Her hands, which had been covering bleeding ears, slid up into her hair, leaving behind streaks of blood. Her knuckled went white as they clutched at her head, her body slowly sliding down the wall.

The thing on the other side, stuck harder and he heard a whirring sound start up. It began to sound as if something was scratching at the wall.

"We need a medic over here!" Baki's voice echoed loud in the room, cutting across the idle conversations that had just started. The proctor was there in a second, pushing off the railing to reach the girl.

"Ai," he called, crouching in front of her.

 _"That was her name? Love?"_ His mind struggled to find something to normalize this bizarre situation.

"Slipping through the cracks, falling to the depths, can I ever go back?" The girl, Ai, cried, blood still rolling down her cheeks, she was sounding more hysterical. The proctor's hands wrapped around her wrists, giving a gentle tug, but when her hands didn't release their death grip on her hair Kankuro felt a sharp spike of chakra from the man, her fingers loosened and he pulled them down from her head.

"Ai, you need to breathe," he commanded.

She obviously didn't hear anything he said, but she did close her eyes, tilting her head down. "Dreaming of the way it used to be, can you hear me?" By the last word, she was shouting. The medics arrived then, two men running up the stairs and skidding to a halt at her form. As one began to inspect her, chakra gathered in his hands, Ai began to struggle and the medic barely dodged a kick to his knee.

Her hands fought against the proctor's reaching for her head again, but only making it to her neck, where they tried to claw in and gain purchase.

The second medic joined in and they attempted to lay out the fighting girl. Kankuro backed away to the railing as he felt her chakra spike, fighting against the three men as well. Something above their heads popped. He looked up, it had sounded like a lightbulb exploding, but there was nothing there. The clawing at the wall intensified, the whirring growing louder. Whatever was on the other side slammed against the wall again.

"Put her under," the proctor snapped.

The medic not trying to hold her still, lunged for her head. He placed two of his fingers against her temple and with a burst of chakra, Ai stopped struggling. Her hands were removed from her throat and placed on either side of her. The medic that had put her to sleep, placed a hand on her chest and another on her head.

Under his care, her breathing evened out. Once done, he looked at the proctor. "She's stable for now, but we need to take her to the hospital." A third medic had arrived at some point with another ninja. The medic laid out the stretcher and Ai was moved onto it. The three quickly lifted her and made their way down the stairs. As they lifted her, something clinked on the floor not far from him. It was a necklace, sporting an odd gem that glittered and looked at if it glowed with its own light. He shifted and used a chakra string to pull it to him. He closed his hand around it, but no one seemed to notice his questionable acquisition.

The second ninja leaned forward and Kankuro, in the prime spot, heard a quick whispered, "I'll go with her," before the brown-haired ninja retreated, following the medics down the stairs. The proctor watched them go, but movement in Kankuro's peripheral caught his attention. He looked at his brother, who had turned his head to watch the medics exit from the room with the girl. Gaara's eyes narrowed, studying them and he flexed his fist once more.

"Do you know what happened?" the proctor turned and asked Baki, who shook his head.

"No, she was fine. Until she wasn't." The proctor's jaw tightened, but he didn't say anything more. He turned away, pulling at one of his pockets on his vest, a thin scroll slid out into his hand as he vaulted over the rail.

He moved to the middle of the room, opening the scroll and calling to the two waiting contestants. "If you have anything metal you don't wish to lose, I suggest you hold onto it." The proctor crouched, bit his thumb, and swept the bleeding digit across the ink.

Kankuro didn't feel anything, but the Sound ninja below twitched as the metal dragonflies, which had returned to being spheres rolled toward the scroll. As the first one hit it vanished in a puff and as more continued to collect the small puffs became a stream. Once they all seemed to have been acquired, the scroll was rolled up and returned to its vest pocket.

The proctor strode to the front of the room and called a start to the match.

Looking down, Kankuro opened his hand to study the gem. It looked like half a yin-yang and swirled in shifting colors or red, blue, and green. It was strange. He closed his fist around it and deposited the piece of jewelry into his pocket.

This whole show was turning into a mess.

* * *

Songs in order of appearance:

 _Gasoline_ \- Halsey

 _Monster_ \- Meg  & Dia

 _Falling Inside the Black_ \- Skillet


	5. Pour a Little Salt We Were Never Here

had and have issues with this chapter, but I fought through and got 'er done anyway. I'm not entirely happy, but exposition is something I don't enjoy very much. I'm feeling so 'eeeeeeeh' about it, but here it is... If you have any questions, I'm open to them, or opinions, thoughts, etc.

Thank you all for your Reviews, Favs, Alerts, and one Community! I've always had this weird desire to see the reviews be double the chapter numbers. Thanks for that too!

Also, I'm sorry in advance. Somethings have gotta happen.

* * *

Silver Streams

Pour a Little Salt, We Were Never Here

※

Ai blinked awake to a dimly-lit white room. If physics didn't disagree with her, she'd swear a raging bull was shut up in her brain.

"Hey," a voice said softy. She rolled her melon-feeling head to the side. Hayate was sitting upright from his chair at her bedside. "How are you feeling?"

"Like some ninja took a wood sword to my head." Hayate's smile was tight and his eyes even more tired than when she'd last seen him. He leaned forward and put his cool hand on her forehead. She closed her eyes. It felt so good. "What happened?"

"We were hoping you'd tell us that, but if you want to know where you're at, the hospital."

"Ah."

"You were admitted for an intracranial hemorrhage, but the doctors said they couldn't find a reason behind it. It's evening now, you've only been out for half a day."

"How long am I going to be here?"

"The doctor said he wants to keep you overnight for observation," Ai groaned, "and possibly the next as well." This news caused Ai to groan louder. "Unless you can shed some light on the situation that might change his mind."

"It was Gaara," Hayate's fingers twitched on her forehead. He removed his hand a second later, probably so he wouldn't give her anymore tells. "Not on purpose. He didn't know what would happen, is what I mean, I guess. Obviously." Ai sighed, she missed his cold hand. "I was doing what Anko told me, but I didn't have my channeling rod, so I used the railing. I told them not to touch it, but I guess Gaara thought he'd get some kick and giggles from doing it. He's probably not thinking it's so funny anymore. Our mind-meld insured he got a good taste of my past too, so there's that."

"I don't think he thought it was funny in the first place," Hayate imputed. "Did you see anything interesting."

"He had a horrid childhood, but that seems to be par for the course in Ninja Land," Ai opened her eyes. "I mean, who the hell tells a child that they'll never be loved?" She pushed herself upright, with Hayate's help and a few rearranged pillows. "A sick freak, that's who," she answered herself as she struggled up.

"That explains what happened," Hayate settled back into his chair as he spoke, "but it doesn't tell me how it landed you here. This didn't happen the first time."

"Because I let the first time ride itself through. With you it was just like… floating on a calm lake. With Gaara I was fighting an ocean storm, comprised primarily of sand. I could feel our chakra fighting for control, so I forcefully pulled mine away. Who knows, maybe everything would have been fine, but I was panicking, and you know how my chakra gets, I might've exploded his head. Maybe this is the backlash of that," she shrugged. "Shouldn't pull fighting dogs apart."

Ai was ninety percent positive that if she had better chakra control it wouldn't have happened. She'd got the importance of control practically beaten into her, but whenever it came down to it, control just slipped through her fingers. She had been open, in the middle of a technique and letting that voice speak with her. When Gaara had tugged on her chakra though, it had whipped around like an angry snake getting its tail tugged. It had turned and latched into his, letting go of everything she'd been trying to get it to do earlier. It had, obviously, become a disaster. She had let everyone down.

Hayate leaned back in his chair and let out a breath. "Next time, blow up the other ninja's head and we'll worry about –"

"Hiding the evidence later?" Ai asked facetiously.

"Handling the political repercussions later," he corrected good naturedly before letting out a soft breath and readjusting himself in the chair. "I should let you know that you won't see very much of me for the next couple days."

"What? Why?"

"Because I have a mission," he explained. Ai narrowed her eyes at him, she could feel something there, but Hayate, probably from spending a lot of time around her, was very good at blocking whatever the Voice used to read people. Worry? Fear? For her?

"Besides proctoring the Chunin Exams?" she asked. "Is this because I wasn't able to follow that guy? Is this one of those classified things too?" Hayate's lack of response was answer enough. "Who is it?"

"You ask me if it's classified then ask me who it is?"

"Is it Kabuto?"

Hayate let out a laugh. "What makes you think it's him? Besides your obsession with him," he added before she spoke.

"I'm not obsessed," Ai defended. Hayate raised an eyebrow. " _He's_ obsessed with _me_. _I_ think he's a dirty, belly-crawling snake."

"You say _everyone_ is a dirty, belly-crawling snake. You're starting to sound paranoid."

"Not everyone and it's only paranoia if I'm wrong. Which I'm not."

"Remind me again when you were right?"

Ai clicked her tongue in defeat and Hayate smirked. "What did he do anyway? You know, other than being a generic creep-o." Ai grinned. "Were there literal skeletons in his closet?" Hayate shook his head, soft grin on his face, as he stood up. "Does he have a collection of heads which were once some lords' pretty, young daughters?"

"I should get going," he said.

"Oh, don't tell me he _actually_ carries a scroll around filled with dead bodies, because that is _so_ disturbing."

"As opposed to literal skeletons in his closet and collecting heads?" Ai shrugged. "Get some rest, I'll be by to see you tomorrow and I'll let you know if your explanation lessens your jail sentence."

"Thank you," she said sincerely.

Hayate's eyes grew soft and he reached a hand forward, brushing a few strands of hair from her forehead. He then surprised her by planting a quick kiss on her head, his chakra gently touching her own. Ai returned the soft pressure, relaxing from the feel of his tranquil stream-like chakra mixing with hers. It soothed the roiling, smoking forge that was her chakra. "You do know that I love you Ai, right?"

"Of course. I don't think you'd let me stay around if you didn't."

"Please don't scare me like that again."

"I'll do my best to avoid a repeat."

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," she agreed.

Once the door shut, Ai scratched at her neck as she slid back into a more reclined position, exhaustion creeping back in. Maybe once she was out of here, and now that her part in this side-show of a three-ring circus was over, she could spend the following month learning something new, like crochet, or see if she could get ahold of some highly controlled substances she'd been itching to –. Ai's heart jolted as the sensation of her fingers finally registered in her brain. The chain around her neck was gone, she felt around more, even checking under her sheets in her panic, but it was definitely gone.

She took a deep breath. " _It doesn't mean it's_ missing _missing_ ," she assured herself. " _Maybe Hayate has it and forgot to mention it. They take jewelry and such away in hospitals, right? After all, my rings are gone too._ " She let out her breath and thumped her head back on the pillow. She hoped he had it, Ai really didn't want to go back to that stupid tower.

 _There was so much coughing around her, thick, cracking, hacking-up-a-lung-and-maybe-some-blood coughing. She had stopped a little while ago, but worse, was the burning in her veins, as if someone had injected them full of hydrochloric acid. Though, the pinching, icepick-shoved-in-the-nape-of-her-neck pain was just as bad._

 _She hadn't been able to stop scratching, scoring red lines down her arms and neck in an attempt to ease the pain. The doctors had strapped her arms down some indeterminate time ago as an effort to keep her from causing more harm to herself. It was the only good thing they'd done, though she still squirmed like a restless worm on a hook._

 _At a particularly nasty cough, she turned her head to the side. The cot next to her was occupied by a dark-haired young man, whose skin was a sickly pale grey and cracked-looking. His breaths had become a gurgling, wet sound. His lids fluttered open and he looked at her, eyes glazed and unfocused with fever, but he either recognized her or somehow could recall through his illness that she was there. He let out three spaced huffs of air, similar to sighs, the fourth, however, turned into a choked cough, expelling blood._

 _The red was a jarring contrast to the monotone shades of grey and white of him and the room._

 _His eyes focused enough, or perhaps she was projecting, to display an achingly sorrowful apology._

 _Naoki let out another rattling sigh as the little light left in his eyes faded, turning a grey as the rest of him._

 _The door at the end of the room slammed open._

Ai jerked up, thrown unpleasantly from her just as unpleasant sleep. The doctor, passing through the freshly opened door, raised an eyebrow at her.

"There are a few tests we need to run through this morning before your guardian can check you out," he said approaching her. He obviously didn't care that it looked like he startled her awake, not that he had, but not even a 'by your leave.' His last words did bring her some hope, though. Hayate had obviously worked his magic.

Ai blinked. Or would it be jutsu? Did they have that saying here? She couldn't recall ever hearing it.

The doctor arrived at her side sometime during her contemplations and he gave her another raised eyebrow once she tuned back in before diving straight into the explanation of just what exams she'd get to experience. They consisted of a few questions, – What was her name? What year was it? Who was the current Hokage? – getting a small, bright light shined in her eyes off and then on again, a full chakra examination to make sure there was still no brain tumor or slowly leaking blood in her head – it was also to check heart rate, blood pressure, and chakra system. Hell, he probably checked her cholesterol while he was at it. She also got a sharp prod poked into her hands and feet to test her sensory reception, and a few other seemingly inane tests that also check for neurological damage. All of which she passed with flying colors, not that the doctor said that, but he didn't tell her she'd be getting an extended stay.

She hated every moment of it, but when the curmudgeonly doctor left and Hayate took his place a few moments later, Ai felt a lot better about them.

"Well, you're not going to suddenly die in the next hour," he said upon entering, "so get dressed and we'll get out of here." He finished by dropping a package of clothing on the end of her bed.

"Finally," Ai grumbled as she shimmied out of bed, trying to retain her dignity and not flash anything. She changed in the small attached bathroom to a pair of black capris and a purple shirt with stylized shadow-irises on the front. Walking out to rejoin Hayate, Ai pulled her unwashed and uncombed hair into a high ponytail, scratching idly at the circular scar at the nape of her neck. It had been phantom-itching since her stupid dream.

Most of the way out of the hospital, Hayate seemed to be in deep thought, but as they exited the front doors he spoke up. "We'll get some food while we're out."

"Oh yeah!" Ai cheered, throwing her arms around his waist. "Can we get some dango?"

"We're not getting dango this early in the morning."

"It's not _that_ early."

"Earlier enough that I doubt any of the stands are open."

"Fine, but can we go to Shuichi's? They have delicious egg sandwiches." Ai could already taste them. Her stomach growled at the thought. "Mmm, bacon."

"I don't understand why you like that place so much, it's so –"

Ai pulled away, putting her hands on her hips. "If you don't finish that sentence with 'good,' I will hate you forever." Hayate smiled, but didn't finish his sentence with 'good.' Or anything else, for that matter, but they did turn down the street that would take them to her favorite food joint. "Oh," Ai perked back up, "do have my necklace?" She didn't need to say anything more, she only wore one.

"Uh, no, actually. Now that you mention it I did think something was missing. Your rings are at home, in your room, but no, your necklace wasn't among the items the hospital gave me."

"I'll have to check the tower then," she moaned.

"It's unlikely we can spare someone to open the tunnel on short notice," Hayate told her, knowing she'd want to go as soon as possible, "so be careful as you go through the woods."

"Abel will make a red jam out of anything that thinks of coming near me." Ai noted mentally that cat hadn't shown himself since she woke up, but with a glance up at the rooftops she managed to catch a glint of metal, so she knew he was following by sneaking along roofs. Civilians particularly disliked him, so he usually kept himself out of their sight, for both their sakes.

"I'm sure he will," Hayate agreed.

The pair continued onto idler chit-chat as they journeyed the rest of the way to Shuichi's, which Ai knew Hayate thought was 'plain.' Their topics of conversation ranged from catching Ai up on who had passed the second-round preliminaries to what Ai was planning on doing with her free time.

She left out her interest in trying to replicate, what she called gunpowder, but what was nationally known as 'black powder' and was a highly guarded secret of the alchemist guild – which to her understanding practiced a rudimentary form of chemistry and were as neutral as the Land of Iron. It was this guild, however, that supplied Fire Country, and every other country, their smoke and flash bombs, along with other powder-based explosive. They were also known for they spectacular firework displays for festivals and other celebrations, which they sold as well. It was them, too, that were the main reason behind what little technology was slowly creeping its way across the continent, supposedly the Land of Snow was heavily investing in. The guild also dabbled – less successfully – in medicine. After all, who wanted wait for them to show up when you could visit your local medic-nin or herbalist? Less reputably, were the 'snake-oil salesmen' pawning off elixirs that were supposed to do this or that, most famously was the one for immortality.

The most difficult part would be acquiring the elemental components. If rumor got back to the guild, they'd come barreling in to burn down her house, or more likely, hiring an assassin to eliminate the competition. It wasn't something Ai would ever be able to get confirmed, but she would be surprised if they hadn't done it before.

Either way, Hayate wouldn't be thrilled with her treading on the toes of the guild. He already wasn't ecstatic about what little tinkering she did, but lived with it since it didn't cause trouble (mostly) and she cleaned up after herself. Ai felt a little bad about sneaking behind his back to make explosives, but she just wanted to _try_ it a little bit. She swore she wouldn't tell anyone and keep it all to herself.

Pulling herself out of her ruminations as they entered the cafe she greeted Shuichi himself, who was more than happy to see her.

"Ai!" the large man called from behind his counter. Shuichi wasn't large in ate-too-much-of-his-own-food large, he was large in the Ibiki Morino large. He towered over her by more than a foot and outweighed her by at least six stones. He had a full set of jet black hair, pulled back in a low tail and sparkling green eyes. The man also possessed a pair of biceps that she was sure could snap young trees in half, but he never said anything about if he had once been a ninja or not and Ai didn't bother asking him about it. She had no clue why he was a chef when he probably had many other options available to him, but he was one of the few who actually liked her and she liked back. It probably helped that she was a huge reason his shop was still open. "You haven't been in in weeks. I was concerned."

"I've been busy," Ai confessed, walking up to the bar, leaving out the part about being in the hospital. The tea shop was at its usual half full state, but at night when the desserts came out, it would be packed. The sweets were its biggest seller despite the array of potatoes any way you could dream up, all of which were delicious. Potatoes weren't all that they sold, but it was a big percentage. Ai personally thought their breakfast meals were easily as good.

"Ah, the Chunin Exams, right?" Shuichi was already making her regular order. That man deserved to be a saint, or, Ai corrected mentally, a kami. Saint was the wrong religion here.

"Yes, but my part is done and I've got a week off before I'm in the office again."

"Swing by. I can teach you more," he slid her food onto the bar top, "and you can share some more of those genius recipes you're hiding in that brain of yours." Ninja Land did not possess French pastries. Turns out they were popular.

"Sure," Ai agreed readily, picking up her food. She had been so bored in the years the village hadn't let her do anything that she'd taken to trying to do whatever she could. Cooking had been one of them and she'd convinced Shuichi to take her on by exchanging knowledge for knowledge. He didn't really need her list of pastries anymore, he had a good handle on it now and had experimented by himself, discovering some combinations on his own, but they kept up the interaction. Shuichi was becoming an excellent pâtissier and he didn't know it, but she had books of recipes in her head. "I'll be by soon!"

Ai ate her three sandwiches on her way back to Hayate's apartment. Once back home, he warned her again about taking precautions through the Forest of Death before heading off to do his own thing. She was glad he thought her capable enough that she could get through the woods on her own. Not that she would have minded if he'd accompanied her.

Once Hayate was gone, Ai went to her room and replaced her two band rings on her right pinky and ring finger. Followed by two more on her left thumb and index finger. She replaced the ninja shoes Hayate had brought her with a steel-closed-toe version because she didn't really fancy losing toes and/or getting dirt between them. Ai still couldn't understand how everyone else seemed to be okay with that, the dirt alone made her shudder. She then slid the half strap of her sword harness over her right shoulder and buckled the chest straps just below her bust. Before Tsukikage's was clipped onto the back of her shoulder strap, Ai pulled her hair up into a semi-frazzled bun to keep it out of the way. Finally, she grabbed her intricately braided ninja wire cord and wrapped it a few times around her left wrist and hooked it closed.

Hayate had gotten it for her birthday last year, as a response to her continued discontent with hideous shinobi fashion, claiming it was both stylish and practical. A correct pull would unwind the whole thing smoothly into the limb-removing weapon it was. Ai concurred that he was right, but he refused to tell her where he had gotten it, which irked Ai, but told her that either Hayate had a secret talent for braiding or that he'd gotten someone else to do it for him. As it was, however, she liked it and doubted she'd even be in a situation she would, could, or wanted to undo it.

Moving out of her room, Ai checked both her inked seals, which were still in good condition, and to make sure her wide sleeves weren't in the way. It turned out keeping your clothes from being torn to shreds was a learned skill and not a magical benefit of using chakra. She'd destroyed enough of her sleeves from Seth popping out that Hayate had told her she'd have to start buying her own shirts or she'd be putting them both out of house and home.

Before Ai left through the door, she raised her hand and gripped the hilt of Tsukikage, pumping a bit of chakra into it. She felt seals activate and the sword shimmered out of existence, leaving her with the questionable clothing choice of what looked like half a bandolier-harness strapped to her chest. It was better however to have poor fashion sense than civilians running away, crying about the crazy girl carrying a weapon. Though, she did feel it looked pretty steampunk.

Closing the door behind her, Ai pumped a little chakra into the knob, activating seals and other such things Hayate had equipped the apartment with, before she mundanely locked the door with her key. Abel rattled on the roof and the building across the way.

"Ready to go?"

Abel shivered his metal in consent.

Ai took off walking, while Abel kept to the roofs and out of sight, but she knew he was there, he was never far from her. It'd be a long walk, both to the Forest and through it, but Ai _really_ wanted her necklace back, but between Abel and Seth, she'd be okay and if worse came to worse she'd probably blow up whatever was trying to kill her. Though she'd prefer not to.

"I need to work on that," she sighed to herself, barely noticing as the people on the street gave her a wider berth. She'd really let her chakra control go and needed to get it back, not that it was great at its height four years ago, but she hadn't blown something up on accident at all that year, at least not until the Uchiha massacre occurred. Something like that happening, it scared her. Senseless, even. She barely remembered putting Seth together after it. _"What if someone wants to kill me,"_ the idea sent shivers down her spine and she heard a clatter of Abel above her, telling her no one around was posing that threat, just unease. _"Not that that's any better."_ Ai took a deep breath to calm herself back down. The thought of something out there after her always got her heart going, but it had happened before.

First, when she was taken in the middle of the night and dumped outside, God knew how far away from Kumo. Hayate, in the area on a mission, had found her before she'd frozen to death in the snow. The second time had been in Konoha itself. _Someone_ had tried to kill her, or kidnap her, she wasn't sure, one had blown up and she'd been rescued from the others before their intentions were clear, but she could still recall their blank masks, glowing in the dark, hiding any sign of who the perpetrator could have been.

 _"_ If it hadn't been for Sh–"

"Hey! Bleeding Girl!" A voice pulled her from her thoughts. It left her blinking and she stopped so suddenly in the middle of the street that it was a good thing no one walked near her. Ai glanced around, no one usually yelled at her in the road, and she could only recall one 'bleeding girl' recently. Sadly, it was herself.

"Yeah, you. Up here," the voice called and Ai's eye traveled up the building she was passing. Hanging out an open window was, Ai rolled her eyes, Kankuro. _"Of course, it's him."_

Once he seemed sure she'd actually spotted him he spoke again. "Stay there," he commanded and Ai narrowed her eyes, but he was gone, and slamming the window shut, before she could shout anything back at him. She settled for folding her arms under her chest and cocking her hip, putting on the perfect face of impatience. He arrived only a minute later, tapping a sandal to adjust it better on his foot.

"I'd rather you not call me 'Bleeding Girl," Ai grumbled at him when he got to her.

"Well, you never actually gave me your name, and I tried getting your attention with only 'hey,' but that wasn't working, so," he left his sentence hanging and shrugged. Ai frowned when she realized that he was right and she'd never given him her name, but to be fair she hadn't expected to interact with him again.

"It's Ai."

"I know," he smirked. "I heard the proctor say it."

She was going to burst a capillary. "Then why didn't you use it."

"Because I wanted you to tell me," he said, even more smug now. Ai briefly entertained the idea of strangling him and claiming self-defense, but figured there were too many witnesses to state that she'd attacked him first. "Not going to ask me mine?"

"It's Kankuro. I read your file." He blinked at that.

"So, you are a Leaf ninja then."

"No. But they do allow me near the less important papers." Kankuro's eyes narrowed as he looked down the meager half inch he had on her. She then felt his chakra prod at her own, probably to test her reserves and see if she was lying or not. Ai narrowed her eyes, her own chakra beginning to boil, but she kept a firm hold on it and punched his chakra in the face with hers. He flinched.

"That's rude you know."

"So is prodding me without asking."

She was referring to chakra mixing, not to be confused with chakra sensing. Ai had been taught enough about ninja etiquette by Hayate and Yugao to know that it dictated that chakra mixing was akin to touching another person physically, without permission, it was considered extremely rude and the action was something normally withheld for family and close friends. It could give you information on the other party, telling the emotional state or feeling out chakra reserves, but that too was considered a breach of conduct even among close relations.

Chakra sensing on the other hand, didn't hold such stigma. It was for use on the mission field or sneakily getting away with finding out about another person, which most sensors could do and their target would be none the wiser. However, if you were caught, especially in someplace considered 'neutral,' that was another story and was once again considered tremendously rude and could be reported as an assault to one's person.

Kankuro's chakra touch had been much more poking over truly trying to get a good 'sense' of her. A surface scan and little more, which probably meant he wasn't a practiced sensor. To her it felt more like a mixing than anything else, it hadn't possessed that 'worming' sensation of a sensor.

Still, a verbal warning was usually preferred over starting a fight in the streets and her response was a bit closer to sucker punching someone for hugging her without asking. Even with her verbal response, which both warned against another attempt and let him know she'd taken his action as more 'rude' with a side of 'you're an idiot.'

"Is there something you needed?"

Kankuro looked away, shoving his hand in his pocket, where it fisted. He obviously wasn't going to apologize, but neither was she. She didn't expect what happened next, however. The boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and loosened his fist enough that a gem slipped out and dangled from his hand on a chain. Her eyes locked on it and her breath caught in response.

"I wanted to give this back to you," he spoke, still not looking at her.

"My necklace," she whispered. "I was just about to…" Ai reached forward and cupped the gem in her hands. When Kankuro was sure she had a grip on it, he released the chain. She felt her throat tighten. He had it all along? If she had gotten to the tower and hadn't found it she probably would have panicked. But here it was. She looked up through her lashes at the Sand ninja. "Thank you." Earlier confrontation already forgotten, Ai put as much sincerity in the words as she could. She really was too. Kankuro obviously noticed and was taken aback, because he twitched and looked away again.

"Yeah, well, jewelry isn't my thing," he grumbled. "And it makes creepy sounds at night."

Ai chuckled. "Yes, I suppose it does."

"Well, as long as you know."

She smiled at him and he gave her a suspicious side look, as if he was preparing for the physical sucker punch. "It absorbs chakra during the day," she explained, "and releases it at night. Like a creaking house." Ai put her arms behind her neck, hooking the clips together. "I don't really know _why_ it does that, but no one seems interested in studying the chakra absorption properties of rocks. I'm curious, personally. Why is this one special? Or do others do it, too? Is it only restricted to gems?"

"That sounds like a _titillating_ discussion." Kankuro's face said it was anything but. Ai smiled again, this time wider.

"You never know unless you give it a try, I suppose."

He snorted in response. "And I'm sure it is… for someone else." Ai shrugged and fiddled with her necklace, looking down at the gem, watching green shift into blue. The two were silent for a moment before Ai spoke up.

"I really am thankful," she felt she should make that clear. She had been a compete witch during the second exam and not so nice just moments before. "If there's something I can help you with, or a favor, or, I don't know. Let me know?" She finished, looking up at him through her lashes again.

Kankuro blinked a few times and Ai finally spotted some red entering his cheeks. "Um," he stuttered, "well, if you know a decent place to get some actual food, that would be nice. All the food of your village is unpalatable."

Ai perked up and beamed. "That'd be Shuichi's then."

"Shu-ichi's?" He repeated, still off kilter at her sudden change of mood and open body language.

"Yeah, it's down Goma Street, off Main." She reached forward and gave his arm a tug, releasing it near immediately. Touch and ninjas were a sensitive topic when together. "Come on, I'll show you." As she took a step backwards, Kankuro took one forward and received another dazzling smile from Ai. He did give a swift glance up to his hotel window before fully committing to going with her and stepping up to her side as she turned to face the original way she'd been going. "I think he's originally from the Land of Hot Water, so his food is a fair bit different from the Land of Fire's usual cuisine. Which is good, because it took me kind of a long time to get used Konoha's food when I got here, so Shuichi's was something of a life saver. I was pretty much only eating rice back then."

"Hold up," Kankuro said. "You're not _from_ Fire?" Ai shook her head.

"Not originally. Sure, if you walked up to me now and asked where I'm from I'd say 'Konoha,' but no, not originally. I've only lived here for six years."

"Where did you come from then?"

"The Land of Lightning, specifically Hidden Cloud."

"Ah, no, I remember you yelling that at that Neji kid." Ai flushed. That hadn't been her most brilliant moment. "Why'd you leave?"

She chuckled self-consciously. "Ah, well, that wasn't really a choice. I was, sort of, kicked out."

"Kicked… out?"

"Yeah, they didn't seem to like me much. I only lived there for about a year and a good portion of it was spent in quarantine." Kankuro was staring at her both stunned and baffled.

"Quarantine?" he finally got out.

"Mm-hmm," she hummed. "A few days after we got to that country, we got really sick." Ai started fiddling with her necklace again. "Which is why I'm so glad to have this back. It's the last thing I have of them."

"Them?"

Ai gave him a sad smile. "Yeah, I'm not originally from Lightning either. I went there with a few other people. Six others to be exact, but," she paused for a second, "they all died from the sickness."

Kankuro's expression said he was struggling to find a place to ask questions from. He most likely had so many now. She watched as he tried to figure out what he wanted to tackle first and noticed when his face smoothed as he figured it out.

"If you're not from the Land of Lightning, where did you come from first? Why did you leave?"

"That is a tale as old as time," she said, answering the second question first. "War." Kankuro looked at her sharply and she heard the clack of wooden chimes. "My country was at war and we were refugees." Ai felt her chakra churn in her belly at the sadness that washed over her. "I watched as the only people I'd known in my life were murdered and as the only place I knew as home was destroyed." Thinking about then always hurt, so Ai kicked the trickling memories back into the room she kept firmly locked in her mind.

Letting out a sigh, Ai moved on to Kankuro's first question. It had an interesting answer, if she'd told him what _she_ thought the truth was. "We came from north of Lightning," she said, telling him Hayate's truth.

"I didn't know there was something north of Lightning," he said contemplatively.

"Neither did they if their stab-first greeting party was anything to go by." He seemed to take that in a stride. Ninja were after all very protective of their own lands and unexpected strangers were unwelcome.

Ai had been telling that tale since Hayate had drilled into her that there _was not_ another world and that her beliefs came from trauma, not fact, and if she had to tell anyone anything it should be that she was from 'north of Lightning.' Which, after a few months of thinking about it, for all she knew, Hayate was right. She didn't have any proof, only her own opinion.

"The six I was with," she continued, "they were adults, and they put up a good fight against the Cloud ninja, but we were captured in the end. Then we all got sick."

"Sick with what?" was Kankuro's next question.

Ai shrugged. "I'm not sure. The doctors never talked to me about it, not really anyway. From what I gathered though, and from what others here have said, it seems like it was some sort of chakra sickness."

"Chakra sickness?" he repeated, pulling away a bit and studying her.

"It's not contagious," she assured him. "Or at least we never gave it to anyone, but Cloud didn't seem to want to take that risk. Hence the quarantine."

"I'm not surprised. _Anywhere_ , would have done the same thing if they were smart. I've never even heard of a _sickness_ in chakra before, though. Chakra deformities, sure, happens, but a disease?"

"Cloud seemed to think the same thing as you. And Leaf. But Leaf doctors at least couldn't come to any other conclusions. They said my coils are perfectly formed and other than my atrocious control, there is nothing wrong. They think I survived because I was young and my coils could adapt, but no matter how hard any of them searched they couldn't find a trace of whatever it was. Except an excess of physical chakra but," Ai shrugged. All that really meant was her chakra was unbalanced and Kankuro could figure that out on his own.

Kankuro muttered a swear under his breath. "But Cloud was still concerned and kicked you out?"

She nodded. "I lived there for a while on the streets. I met two ninja that were willing to help me control my chakra, because if anything the sickness seemed to have jump started that and sometimes it would just act up and lash out, but I guess it was eventually decided the risk wasn't worth it, even after the months of nothing happening. I was found in the wilderness and now here I am and here I've stayed." He muttered another curse.

They made if a few more feet in silence before Kankuro spoke. "Why are you telling me this?" His words almost sounded accusatory.

Ai stepped in front of him, forcing him to stop. "Look, I'm not trying to dig for pity or anything." She grabbed her necklace again, fiddling with it. "There are plenty of people who have had it worse than me, but," she looked down at the gem, it shifted from red to green, "you returned something precious to me," Ai looked back up, meeting Kankuro's eyes, "the least I can do is answer your questions." _"Ugh, this is getting sappy and gross,"_ she thought sourly. She needed to fix that. "At least while I walked you to Shuichi's anyway, I'm not gonna be this nice tomorrow… If we even see each other, which I'm not planning on, so don't expect it. Also, we're here. Can you find your own way back?"

"You're a bit snappy, aren't you?"

"I am only how I was made," Ai shrugged.

Kankuro tsked and turned away. "I can find my own way back, thanks," he grumbled at her. The 'thanks' was obviously meant sarcastically. She narrowed her eyes.

"Ask for the special," she told him, brushing past.

"Hey," Kankuro said, grabbing the crook of her elbow and pulling her to a stop. Ai turned part way around to look at him.

"Yeah?" She watched as visible disquiet flickered across his face.

 _Rushing sand. Deafening roar. Single tail lashing against a full moon. Fear._

Ai jerked her arm out of his grip, not that it would have stopped the voice in her head, but conveniently it ended at the same time. Kankuro's troubled expression smoothed as well. "Ah, never mind," he muttered dropping his hand.

"Sure." Ai took a few steps back. "Enjoy the food. Don't forget your siblings, I'm sure they'll want some too." She turned her back and walked away, still feeling his eyes on her. Abel clacked from the rooftops that, yes, he was watching, but looked away at his noise, searching for the source. When she rounding a corner, she rubbed at the back of her neck, trying to wipe away the phantom feeling that still lingered. Ai sighed. "Yeah, I still hate people," she murmured to herself. A few citizens in the street gave her a look which she tried to ignore. She heard Abel give a short clatter. "Yeah, I'm glad we don't have to deal with the forest either. Let's go home."

As she continued on her journey, Ai tried to decide what to do now that her day suddenly much freer. "Maybe clean." Their apartment, while not in terrible condition, had gotten neglected in their busy schedules. "Maybe I can make a nice dinner too." Ai brightened at that idea. Both Hayate and her deserved a good treat after the last few days. With that in mind, Ai set to work recalling what was and was not in the cabinets in order to make tonjiru, what vegetables she should get to fry, and whether she should restock on rice while she was out.

It turned into a perfectly normal day. Ai, however, had not been expecting Hayate to not show up that night. Nor had she been expecting Yugao to show up in the early hours of morning.

* * *

Little bit of a rant time - but an important rant to explain a view of mine.

I know in episode whatever-it-is, it is implied that Konohamaru and Co. make their own smoke bombs using 'gunpowder.' However, with the argument of 'Kishimoto said guns don't exist in Naruto,' I think it's silly that it's called gunpowder, hence 'black powder,' another name for the same thing. Also, I know one appears in Chapter 19, in a store, but I'm ignoring that as not there or simply that it looks suspiciously like a gun but does something else entirely, like I dunno, shoot confetti. Back to the Konohamaru part… I'm going with how my brothers behaved at that age (and older, as one is a chemical engineer, which is nice speak for 'blow things up for a living'), and they got smoke bombs of their own, cut them open, and added chalk or something to give them different colors, and put them back together not quite right, giving us the "I think we used too much gunpowder" line that kind of drives me up the wall.

I also feel that given they have an explosive powder, they also must have fireworks, as smoke bombs and fireworks share a few things in common, but I don't feel like ninja who can write and form hand signs to make their own pyrotechnic display would think about crushing up rocks to make gunpowder so I got alchemy involved. So, some 'civilians' practice SCIENCE! but it's not very popular. Why would it be when you have basically magic that does a lot of what science can do too? However, it has leaked in a little bit, hence computers, batteries, cameras, and VHS, which are ALL super old school and the successes are well-guarded, cause 'gotta make dat money.' I think they'd get their eventually (which they do) but Ai is already there. Sorry for that long rant about technology in Naruto, but I kinda wanted to explain my reasoning.


	6. Sink of Blood and Crushed Veneer

I made a booboo last chapter. Ai says Hayate gave her the bracelet last month for her birthday… I so meant the write last year. I fixed that. It's not a huge thing chapter wise, but story wise, if her birthday (which it's not) was the month before the chunin exams that messes up a lot of numbers. It's December 22nd by the way, in case you were wondering.

Thanks for all of your support! I :heart: you guys! You're all the best people ever!

Also, I keep writing scenes that have nothing to do with what I'm currently writing, it's so bad. I guess I'm just looking forward to the future. xD

* * *

Silver Streams

Sink of Blood and Crushed Veneer

※

The sun had just finished rising fully above the horizon, finding a young ninja striding purposefully down the roads of Konoha. Yugao had completed her report to the Hokage, but she still had another job to carry out. It was that task that landed her in front of a certain apartment building that she didn't quite have the same desirous feelings to visit anymore, but someone had to tell Ai what had happened and Yugao was the best person to do it. After Hayate – Yugao felt her throat tighten – she knew Ai the best.

After she had defended Ai so ardently in the Hokage's office, it could only be her. Just the thought of the Hokage asking if Ai might have anything to do with Hayate's – Yugao glossed over that – made her feel ill. Her even hurting Hayate was a preposterous notion. Ai held more loyalty in her than half the ninja she knew, you just had to win it first. Win it _and_ get past her irrational fear of close relationships. Though, with the news Yugao was delivering, and from what she had learned of Ai's past years ago, maybe it wasn't so irrational.

Yugao took a breath and climbed the stairs of the apartment building, coming to stop at a door she was very well acquainted with. She clenched her fists. _"You can do this."_ She'd done it many times before, not that any of them were easy, but this time felt even more difficult.

Steeling herself, Yugao knocked. It didn't take very long before she could hear movement on the other side. She let out a shaky breath, doing some last minute figuring out of what all she wanted to say to Ai, and how to handle the likely incoming break down.

Ai opened the door, she was wearing black pants and an overlarge shirt bearing a few aloe flowers on the front, when she saw Yugao on the other side of the door she blinked. "Oh, Yugao, what are –"

At the sight of Ai and the sound of her voice, Yugao felt her heart stutter and she could no longer repress the image of Hayate in her mind. His vest and clothes shredded, sword just brushing his fingertips, where it had fallen from his grasp. His blood tacky beneath his cold body, matted in his hair. The others of her squad standing around the body, silent.

She was brought back by a gasp. Ai was staring at her wide-eyed and mouth agape, horror and realization dawning across her visage. "No," she whispered, pulling away from the doorway, "no, no, no, no," she kept repeating over and over. Yugao swept in and pulled Ai into a hug just as her legs gave away. One hand around her back and the other cradling her neck to pull Ai to her shoulder, Yugao gently guided her to the floor. She could feel the young girl shaking violently in her arms so she began making small circles on her back to try and soothe her.

As she did that, Yugao began to build her chakra and tense her legs for what she knew was coming. When she felt Ai's chakra bubbling unstably, Yugao made sure she had a good grip on the girl before pulling them both away with a body flicker. It took a couple, but she managed to get both of them to the closest training ground, which luckily was empty.

She pulled Ai tighter to her and began some comforting sounds, trying to keep what was likely the inevitable from occurring.

Ai's chakra kept piling and piling and Yugao could feel tears on her neck, but she wasn't afraid. She knew enough that Ai's chakra had never hurt Ai herself, maybe left her a little singed, but nothing worse. If she kept close enough, Yugao was sure she'd be all right as well. Sure, she could have left, but the idea of leaving Ai to go through this alone, she couldn't do that, so she clung to the girl as the first explosion rocked the clearing, pulling chakra into her chest and head as precautionary measures against shockwaves.

When the explosions began to scatter tree and dirt particulate, she closed her eyes and tucked her head down, making sure to continue rubbing circles into Ai's back. It didn't take long before her chakra began to flag and the explosions petered out into a few pops and cracks, soon leaving the field in near silence. The only sounds left were Ai's sobs and Yugao's soft shushing noises.

A quiet rattle caught her attention. Looking up revealed Abel standing a few feet away, his body crouched, neck lowered, and head down, but his empty-socket eyes turned up enough to meet her gaze. She had learned enough to know this meant concern. Yugao shook her head minutely at the strange skeletal cat. He merely laid down. As he did so, she spotted a substantially sized splinter wedged in the cat's ribcage and she realized the he must have been around during the fireworks and had defended them both against the worst of the barrage. It hadn't occurred to her until that moment that perhaps Ai's lack of harm wasn't from an unconscious sense of self-preservation, but from a cat that worked hard to keep her unscathed.

Returning her attention back to Ai, Yugao couldn't help but feel envy over the fact that unlike Ai, she could not express her sorrow so fully. As a ninja, her emotions had to remain in check and bottled up, that she would and could continue her obligations to the village. She could pretend though, that Ai's show of grief was hers too, for inside she felt the same way. She could pretend that this break down was hers, that she too had unleashed her soul-wrenching pain and then maybe it wouldn't hurt so bad anymore. The least she could do was aid Ai through her heartbreak, whatever she needed. Hayate would have wanted that.

Yugao couldn't be sure of exactly how long they were like that, but eventually Ai's body-wracking sobs slowed, turning into tremors and then stopping altogether. Her body lost its tension and Ai curled herself up into Yugao's warmth, arms wrapping around her waist. Yugao loosened her grip to allow Ai's movement, pulling the girl that was really too large for this, onto her lap. After some more time passed and after Ai has stilled more fully and her breathing had turned regular to the point Yugao wasn't sure if she'd fallen asleep or just finally shut down, the purple-haired kunoichi adjusted her hold on Ai, standing up with the girl in her arms.

Once upright, Yugao took in what was once Training Ground 13. All the trees within a thirty-foot radius had exploded, their bark splintered and cracked, the few trees that had managed to stand through the assault now possessed bulbous midsections from the boiling water inside expanding their trunks. The ground too had ruptures. Geyser-like holes dotted the ground, creating hazardous footing. Debris, of dirt, rocks, large splinters of wood, were scattered everywhere and Yugao thought it miraculous that none of it had actually hit them with enough force to hurt, or penetrate flesh, though, she supposed they had Abel to thank for that. The worse that had happened was they were both dirty now.

Ai could do a lot of damage in a short amount of time, but Yugao was positive, just as Hayate had been positive – and probably the whole damn ninja community could be positive if they gave it the time of day to figure out – that Ai's wasn't properly processing her chakra. It wasn't _unheard_ of for chakra to get away from you. Fire and Lightning jutsu were notorious for turning on the user if done improperly.

But for Hayate's sake, she would do her best to help Ai. It might not be how he would have done it, but she'd try. For his memory.

And it'd start with some intensive chakra training.

Glancing up at the position of the sun, Yugao tried to determine how much time had passed. Between the sun – and the ache in her body when it finally moved – it had been around two hours. The initial explosive mess hadn't taken much time, she knew that much, Ai's chakra practically vanished under heavy use, but unless consciously pushed, it wouldn't drain to dangerous levels. It was the consoling that had taken awhile, but thankfully, no one had shown up to inspect what had happened here. The positive of taking it to a training ground.

And, you know, not destroying half the living quarters of their complex.

Using body flicker again, she took them both back to Hayate's apartment, door still standing open. She depositing the – sleeping? – girl onto the couch, tucking a pillow under her head and settling a blanket over her body. She then moved to the kitchen and set rice to cook and a kettle of water to boil. Partway through the cooking, Yugao heard the soft rattle of Abel arriving and glanced out to see him settle down by the couch, spear of wood now missing.

Once the rice and tea were done, she set them both on the table by the couch for Ai to, hopefully, eat and drink. She selected food that wouldn't be upsetting to her stomach and tea that tasted just fine cold.

Abel watched her as she left through the door that had yet to be closed. She gave the cat a nod before shutting the door. As much as Yugao wanted to stay, she had a few things she needed to do and she was still expected to continue performing her duty. The first of her tasks would be easy enough. She'd drop by to see Iruka, get him to watch Ai for as long as needed before the second task was accomplished. The second, if she was lucky, she'd be able to find tomorrow morning and, if she was extra lucky, convince him to watch Ai for the time being until something more permanent could be settled.

It wouldn't be that much of a strain on him, he was already watching one target. Putting two together would make his job easier.

Yugao hopped up to the rooftops and took off.

※※※※※

Yugao hadn't locked the door, but Iruka would be floored if someone was actually daring enough to break into Hayate's apartment. Even if Hayate was no longer there. He'd seen the damage Abel's metal teeth could do to inanimate objects and he could imagine with vivid clarity what they could do to people. Yugao had once explained it by saying 'I wouldn't call what was left behind a body,' and Iruka could believe that.

He opened the door and was greeted by Abel, who had never once greeted him before in the four years he'd known Ai. The skeletal cat circled him once, then twice, before rubbing its ribcage across his leg – which was a disturbing sensation – and then used its hipbone to put pressure on the back of his thigh, pushing him forward. He gladly walked away from the cat, which followed him, but settled at the base of the couch with a flop, looking for all the world a strange, unalive, art piece. He'd never seen the cat so subdued before.

Iruka had been told that Ai had been left possibly asleep or shut off from the world and both emotionally drained and chakra exhausted. For him though, she was sitting upright, blanket bunched by her side, staring off into the distance, blue eyes completely unfocused.

Better than blowing things up, he supposed.

"Hello, Ai," he said, not expecting a response. "Yugao asked me to come by." He gathered the rice Yugao had left on the table and walked back to Ai. He placed the bowl in one hand and the chopsticks in another. She still hadn't focused on him or anything for that matter. "You need to eat," he told her. He could feel the tremors in her hands. Iruka got her started by sticking the chopsticks in her hand into the rice. He let go and left her to get some water. He collected the tea on his way back in case she'd want that instead, though he didn't think she'd notice or care either way.

"I was thinking you could come with me to the Academy today," he told her, keeping up a stream of conversation. "You could sit in on my class, or hang out in the teachers' lounge if you'd prefer." When he got back he was glad to see that she had taken a few bites of food, before stopping, for all the world looking like she'd forgotten what she'd be doing. "Of course, you'll have to get showered first," he set down the tea and crouching in front of her, he replaced the rice and chopsticks with the glass of water. When he nudged her hand up she mechanically took a drink. "You're covered in dirt." He removed the water from her trembling hands. "It'll be good for you."

Iruka gently cupped her elbow and at the slightest tug, Ai stood up and followed him to the bathroom. He guided her in, started the shower, and closed the door behind himself. He monitored her with his chakra, which he could hardly feel, between it having so suppressed itself in sadness and having used nearly all of it earlier, but despite its current limitations, he'd be able to feel it flare in distress if something bad happened or sense it as she moved around. He took a few steps away before he felt a slight shift in her chakra. He hoped that meant she was actually going to shower and not just sit in there while the water ran cold. Either way, he'd still bring her with him to the Academy.

He paused in the hallway realizing she didn't have any clean clothes to change into. That was fine, he moved the other direction down the hallway, he could dig through a fourteen-year-olds clothes and – he stopped again. _"That sounded so wrong."_ He rubbed his face. _"Clinical. Clinical. It wasn't like I'm doing this for kicks."_ He entered her room and nearly swore as something moved under her bed. A large snake skull, made of rounded metal panels and, assumingly, attached to a skeletal body, emerged from under her bed to stare at him. He let out a breath and did not reach for a kunai. Now he knew what Hayate was talking about when he said Ai could be difficult to live with.

"You must be Seth," he said to it, edging towards Ai's dresser. Its lower jaw dragged across the ground with a soft scraping as it turned to watch him. Yugao had told him about the snake he never knew existed and explained to him that he'd need to check the seals on her arms. He hadn't been expecting the snake to be out, however. Apparently displeased by him, a rattle sounded. "Right, I'll just…" he dug through Ai's clothes grabbing whatever, not turning his back on the snake, though it hadn't moved any further out. Once done, he exited the room and closed the door.

Iruka went back to the bathroom door, where he could hear a disrupted flow to the water. He knocked on the door. "I'm putting clothes on the floor outside for you," he called loud enough to be heard over the sound. He kept his chakra tuned towards her still monitoring her. He hoped she wouldn't be in there forever, he _really_ didn't want to go in there after her.

Moving back to the front room, he cleaned up the food and drinks, putting the rice in a storage container and into the refrigerator. He then made up a bottle of water and searched for a few handheld snacks for Ai to carry with her. Iruka was relieved when he felt Ai's chakra move and heard the door open and close again. Meanwhile, he sought out and found the ink and brush he'd need to redo the seals on her arms.

After a few moments, Ai emerged, dressed, hair dripping, and clean from dirt. She shuffled to the couch and stared at it. She might have sat on her own, but Iruka helped her along with a "Go ahead and sit, there's one more thing we need to do before we leave." She did what he said, so he added, "We need to check the storage seals on your arms." His words got her to lift her head and look at him. "Yugao told me," he explained, sitting down sideways to face her and tucking a leg underneath him. "Your arm." She offered him one and he took hold of her wrist, pushing up the sleeve.

What he saw was a relief, Yugao had given him a diagram of the seal, but he could see the ink faintly stained into the pale ventral skin of her arm. It saved him the time of trying to copy it when he could trace it. In only a few minutes there was fresh ink coating her arms and mostly dry by the time he finished the second. "Go seal up the snake in your room," he told her, cleaning up the supplies he used. Abel shuffled a small amount as Ai slouched past. When he finished, he followed Ai to her room, curious as to how she managed the metal snake.

Ai was kneeling in the middle of her room, a few feet from the bed, arms out and sleeves rolled up. The snake was how he'd left it, metal skull poking out. What Iruka found interesting at the sight was that the snake almost looked like it was ignoring her. Its head turned away. In comparison to Abel, who always watched Ai when she was in the same room or general vicinity of the cat. It always seemed the be keeping an eye on her, despite lacking eyes.

"Seth," Ai spoke calmly. The snake turned its head sullenly towards her, remaining under the bed. She touched the inside of her left arm with her fingers and, in a way Iruka could only describe as sulkily, it slowly emerged, ribs rasping across the floorboards. Upon reaching Ai, most of it having not emerged from under the cover of the bed, Ai cupped its skull and the seals on her arms lit faintly as they were activated. With a faint hissing noise, the snake vanished, turning into two trails of smoke as Ai separated her hands. She stood shaking away the residual smoke drifting around her arms. The light of the seal faded and Ai kneaded at her forearms, carefully avoiding smearing the ink.

"Let's go," Iruka said, "Academy classes start soon." It wasn't _too_ soon, but Iruka preferred to be there early. Ai followed him quietly from her room, into the front room, where Abel shook itself out and joined the pair, as they silently moved out the front door. The cat jumped up to the roof and vanished from sight. They continued their silent trek to Academy and ended it in the lounge where he left Ai settling in at the table.

A few hours later when lunch swung around, he popped back in to check on Ai. She had cracked a window to let Abel in. The cat was sitting up with its head laying in her lap as Ai idly rubbed her fingers across its smooth skull. She had also dug into some of the books and scrolls laying around and currently had a few laying open in front of her, though he wasn't sure if she had read them at all. Even from a distance her could spot her red-rimmed eyes.

Iruka sat in a chair next to her. "Do you want to talk about it?" He saw her eyes grow misty, but she shook her head. He nodded, he didn't want to push her. He felt nearly certain that she didn't have enough chakra to blow anything up, however, he didn't want to be the cause of a break down either. Crying children, he could handle. Crying teenage girls? He wasn't so sure. "As trite as it sounds, you're not alone. If you want to talk to someone, I'm here for you."

She didn't acknowledge his words, but he did see her hand curl on top of Abel's head.

Iruka deposited the food he had brought with him beside the scroll she was staring at on the table. "Don't forget to eat," he told her before gather his own lunch to eat.

※※※※※

It had taken Yugao two days to track him down. She found him in the northern training fields located in the mountains. She decided to be polite enough to approach him at night instead of in the middle of a session, but only barely.

He obviously knew she was there, he'd be a poor shinobi if he didn't.

When night fell and Sasuke had gone to sleep, Kakashi appeared before her.

"You've been lurking for hours. Something you need?"

Yugao shifted her stance. "I know you're busy with your student and the Chunin Exams, but I was hoping you'd do me a favor." He tilted his head in a questioning manner.

"I can guess where this is going," he began, "and you're right, I am busy with training Sasuke. I don't have time to babysit a traumatized girl on top of that."

"Look," Yugao's tone turned firm, "I'm not trying to unload what should be my duty on you, but Ai is in danger and I have shinobi duties I have to take care of as well. I don't have the time to watch her and Iruka can't keep taking her to the Academy." Kakashi's single eye blinked.

"What do you mean 'she's in danger'?"

"I don't think it's something that anyone other than the Hokage, Hayate, and I know, and it's best it stays that way. But you're smart, so when I say Kabuto showed interest in her, you can guess where my thought process is going."

"Is she…?" He trailed off his question.

"We've checked and double checked and then triple checked. She's not aware of any correlation, but we think the probability of her being experimented on by Orochimaru is high."

"I see." He murmured, hands fidgeting in his pockets. "And you want to put the two targets together. You sure that's wise?"

"It's unlikely a move will be made until the third round or possibly after the exams," she answered, readjusting her stance to loosen her limbs. "But like I said earlier, I'm not trying to foist her off on you. I think you can all benefit. In the off chance there is an attack, Ai will be able to help you defend Sasuke –" Kakashi interrupted before she could continue with her other reasons.

"Are you sure she's even in an emotional position where she _can_ properly defend? Her mental instability isn't an unknown. And just a few days ago rumor has it that Training Ground Thirteen was renovated. Violently."

"Yes, she's upset and displaying a few red-flags, but you don't need _her_ to be in a working condition. Abel can handle the defense on his own. I'm hoping that keeping her busy will help, as well. And along that train of thought, I know who Sasuke is supposed to fight in the final round, you haven't been around Ai enough to see her fight, but she's the only one in this village that you'll find with abilities even _slightly_ resembling Gaara's. A perfect training partner." Kakashi sighed, his shoulders rolling forward. "Please, Kakashi. You're someone I can trust to handle the situation."

He sighed again. "Very well. What do I need to do?"

"I'll inform Iruka of the change of plans, you just need to pick her up in the morning. It won't be difficult, she doesn't bother locking the door, let alone activating the traps."

"Right," the silver-haired man breathed out.

"Thank you, Kakashi." Yugao praised, giving him a grateful look, before darting off.

※※※※※

When had he gotten so soft, Kakashi ruminated to himself. He spared a glanced at the red-rimmed-eyed girl walking just slightly off to his side. Her shirt was a standard Leaf ninja uniform top that was too large for her, its sleeves hanging past her hands. It obviously had belonged to Hayate and she was using it in an attempt to remain attached to him through his scent.

She hadn't said much and she hadn't argued about going with him, so at least she wasn't putting up a fuss. The silence, though, that was a tad worrying. She didn't even attempt to engage in conversation, rarely even responding to outside stimuli. Except for her cat, who had joined them once they were no longer in Konoha proper.

It? He? Kakashi wasn't sure what pronoun to use, had settled in beside Ai and she had reached out putting a hand on the creature's back. Which was only a spine and despite seeing the cat slinking around the tower in the second exam, he hadn't gotten over the skeletal appearance.

He could see why Ibiki liked the girl.

Rounding the rocky bend, he spotted his student. Sasuke was running through drills but when Kakashi showed, he stopped. "There you are Kakashi-sen-sei…" the last word paused and trailed off as he spotted Ai, who had come to a halt a little distance behind Kakashi. The Uchiha's eyes narrowed in distaste at her.

"Sasuke, this is Ai," he introduced, noticing that Abel had disappeared somewhere.

"The girl who tripped on a smooth floor?" Sasuke's voice was flat and completely unimpressed.

"That is her, yes. Fortunately, it's not her footwork we'll be dealing with. Ai is here to mimic Gaara's defensive capabilities." Sasuke's face was purely doubtful at his teacher's words. "If you can make it past hers, you'll stand a good chance against Gaara's." He hoped. He was taking Ai's skill on word of mouth alone, he'd never personally seen her in action.

 _"I could be sending her to the hospital with a broken skull,"_ he supposed, _"and Sasuke a missing arm."_ His student's face was only getting sourer by the second.

"Ai, why don't you go stand over there," he gestured to an open area that he figured would be the best place for the spar to begin. Though he had to wonder at what kind of spar it would end as.

The blonde didn't acknowledge his words directly, but the breath of air she released that said she would rather be anywhere _but_ here, along with the fact she began to move, let him know she had heard him. He watched her shuffle into position, hands shoved into her pockets.

 _"Shesh, it's like having two Sasukes around,"_ he thought deadpan, _"at least she's not back-talking."_

Kakashi tilted his head, pushing chakra towards his ears. The cat moved very near silently, but he could just catch the faint hint of metal claws on rocks as Abel moved to get as close to Ai without revealing itself. Once Ai was in position Kakashi turned to direct his student. "All right, go for it."

Sasuke blinked at him. "Is this a joke? Or a test of some kind? You want me to _attack_ a _civilian_ _girl_?"

Before he could reassure the young ninja with something along the lines of 'it'll all be fine,' Ai, surprisingly, spoke first. "What's wrong Uchiha? Worried you won't _measure up_ when it matters?"

Sasuke's face turned wrathful and Kakashi closed his eye.

 _"Spoke too soon."_

"Fine," the dark-haired boy growled. "But don't complain when you wake up in the hospital." Sasuke shot forward and Kakashi's eye shot open when he felt – _felt_ with his chakra – as Abel raced forward with a speed that _had_ to have been chakra aided to intercept Sasuke's punch. His fist went between the cat's ribs, sinking into the empty space there. Abel turned his body down and twisted. Sending Sasuke flying away from Ai.

It was a move that should have snapped Sasuke's wrist like a twig, but the boy got up no worse for wear. As the cat repositioned itself, he saw the reason why. The two ribs that Sasuke's fist had gone between were straightening back into place after having widened to let his arm go without breaking bones. The cat shivered, rattling parts of its metal body together at the Uchiha staring it down. Sasuke rubbed at his wrist, eyes going between Ai and Abel, studying the pair. He was obviously trying to figure out what kind of jutsu she was using. His eyes spun to Sharingan red and despite knowing there wouldn't be anything to copy, Kakashi lifted his headband.

The Sharingan wasn't as renown in its ability to see chakra as the Byakugan was, but it was still good enough to see Ai's chakra. Darkened with her sadness and anger, Kakashi watched as it slowly boiled like a thick soup. There was no doubt that she was in a bad place emotionally. She also _definitely_ had a fire affinity. A flaming orange color was roiling restlessly beneath the surface, as if in preparation for a fireball.

Abel, however, was surrounded by a lighter chakra than Ai's, yet, he could see the similarities in it. Very close similarities, as if Abel was related to her somehow. Under the Sharingan, the 'it's a variation on the puppet jutsu' explanation didn't hold up, but how Ai filled or charged the cat with chakra, Kakashi couldn't begin to guess. The patterns mimicked that of a person over something like a tree or an animal. There were also no eyes or muscles, nothing the Sharingan could usually track, he wasn't sure how you'd be able to tell what the cat was planning. The cat just stood perfectly still, pointing its empty socketed skull at you, waiting. Once it got moving, he was sure that following it wouldn't be as difficult.

Having decided or discovered whatever it was he'd felt he needed to, Sasuke charged attacked again and was once more blocked. Then again, and again, and again.

Kakashi knew how _he_ would get past Ai's defense and that was without considering the fact the he could just dart past the cat. But he would let Sasuke figure it out for himself.

He sighed, pulling his headband back over his Sharingan, as Sasuke was once again blocked. He was in for a long day. He supposed he'd stop them in a few hours and have Sasuke work on the other aspects of his training. Maybe give him a few pointers for dealing with the cat. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. Mornings spent trying to get past Abel, a break for rest and review, then afternoons spent learning the Chidori.

As the days passed, it turned into an interesting arms race between the two, for even as Sasuke's speed and taijutsu improved by leaps and bounds, so did Abel. From what he could tell the cat was better learning to use the chakra that suffused its metal body, being able to speed up and match Sasuke's own quickening speed.

It took four days before Sasuke figured out the tactic Kakashi had thought would be best to get past the cat.

He sped towards the pair, throwing a punch. Abel moved to intercept, committing to the defensive action. Once that commitment was clear, moments before Sasuke's fist struck the metal, he pulled up short, darting to the side in a burst of speed.

Ai, who had seemingly spent the last four days studying the sky and the landscape, finally responded to the Uchiha assault.

Abel rattled as Sasuke's body tensed to stop his attack and Ai turned her attention from a nearby cloud formation, to her side. The girl held out her left hand in a sideways stop and put her right wrist over the left, hand up. As Sasuke vanished, she drew her right hand around her left in a circle, stopping as the top of her right wrist hit the underside of her left.

Kakashi perked up as he felt her chakra pull. _"A summoning?"_

A puff of smoke billowed a second after Sasuke reappeared and lunged forward to throw a punch.

Sasuke's fist sank into the smoke and there was a sound like gong had been struck, echoing around the rocky clearing. The Uchiha's eyes went wide and he darted back, taking extra precaution and going further than usual. There was a clatter like a crate of kunai had been dropped as whatever Ai had summoned fell to the ground.

The smoke cleared, blowing past Ai on the wind. On the rocky ground was a writhing mass of metal, curled and knotted around itself.

"Congratulations," Ai spoke as the metal uncoiling itself. From the undulating ball emerged a skull. As it rose, the ribs of its upper body expanded, forming a hood as if it was one of Wind's Black Sand Cobras. "You made it to level two." The snake's body rippled, mimicking a hiss as the metal vibrated.

With a sigh, Kakashi put his hand over his lower face and cursed Yugao. She couldn't have told him Ai had _two_ of those metal creatures?

The young ninja's eyes darted between Abel, who had pulled back to Ai's side and the snake gently swaying on her other side.

"If you think Gaara can't attack and defend at the same time, you should get yourself checked for brain damage." Ai scowled at the dark-haired boy, who scowled back. She looked away to her snake. "Seth," she said, reaching up to its head. The fingers of her hand sank into its eye sockets, tightened, and pulled its face to look at her. It froze as their eyes met. Kakashi tilted his head as he watched them stare at each other for a few moments. Ai didn't speak and the snake didn't make a sound either. A short time later, she released the snake she called Seth and it jerked back, twitching its head to Sasuke once more. Slowly the ribs making up the hood shifted, touching themselves and rearranging their appearance into the top half of a human skull.

"I'll warn you now, Seth doesn't play as nice as Abel, so you better be quick." As the last word left her mouth, Seth shot forward, hitting the ground, kicking up dirt and debris. Abel didn't move to join, it merely began to circle Ai, waiting to defend the girl should Sasuke make it past the snake.

Sasuke dodged its first lunge successfully, but barely managed to avoid the second. The snake was much more aggressive than the cat. It possessed a long range filled vicious tail swipes and eventually revealed that it could become more than one snake, the metal plates – which turned out to be smaller snakes – capable of disconnecting and reorganizing themselves, though he only saw a max of five lashing metal strands. It was disturbingly impressive, but Sasuke's Sharingan seemed to pick up quick on its tactics.

Though when Kakashi called a halt to the cat and mouse game, Sasuke would have gotten a chest full of metal snake and sent flying if it hadn't been for Abel. He plowed into Seth sending the two of them tumbling in a horrible raucous of metal that ended with the snake pinned beneath the cat's sharp-clawed feet. Seth's tail continued lashing wildly, until Ai walked up to it, hissing air through her teeth. She rolled her left sleeve up and dragged her fingers across an inked seal there, which began to faintly glow as it activated. She put her hands on the skull of the snake and it puffed away.

 _"So, not a summons at all. It's sealed away in her arms."_ It was an interesting fact. He had to wonder how the two of them, made from the same person behaved so differently from each other.

"Sasuke," he called, catching his student's attention from Ai. "Take a break before you get started on nature transformation training."

"Sure," he muttered, walking away as Kakashi moved towards Ai.

"You could have given a bit more of a heads up for that snake of yours." She was sitting on the ground, staring out at something that wasn't there, but when he spoke to her, she actually looked at him. It wasn't a pleasant happy-to-see-you look.

"Isn't one of your ninja policies to not tell enemies about your skills?" Ai laid back, Abel settling in beside her, and began to watch the sky once more.

"Are we your enemies?"

"That's not what I meant," she sighed out.

Kakashi settled on a flat rock near her. "Have you had the situation explained to you? About why you're here?" That brought her attention back to him. He could see confusion in her eyes, making the answer an obvious 'no.' "I'm not one for coddling, it does more harm than good. Yugao, along with the Hokage, think you might be a target for Orochimaru. You know who he is?"

"I've read about him in books. The ones open to civilians, anyway."

He nodded, that was enough. "They came to this conclusion, because we recently found out that Kabuto is a spy for Orochimaru and he has been making some sort of play on the village." Ai sat up, her eyes sharpening at Kabuto's name. It was the most life he'd seen in her since Hayate's death.

"Is he the one who killed Hayate?" she growled.

"We don't know anything for sure, only that Hayate was possibly on his trail."

"Is that why I'm here with you? To keep me out of the way? Safe in the middle of no-where training grounds? Is Sasuke a target too? I saw something on him during his fight, is that related?"

"All right, all right, hold up," Kakashi interrupted, raising his hands. So, she did have some brilliance in there. He'd heard the rumors, her _instability_ , her hearing voices, that she was dangerous, but he'd also heard, from a few ninja she'd interacted with, that she was smart, a little quirky at times perhaps, but she got any task done when put before her.

It was a strange double personality.

And he was beginning to think it a front.

He'd been there for her 'I may have told him I was crazy' story. That implied she, with the consent of Hayate, told, or allowed, people to think she was disturbed.

But why would someone _want_ other people to think you were so mentally instable unless it was to _get_ people to think you were that way. A convenient excuse to explain away oddities that might arise interest from other parties.

Had Hayate been worried about the possibility of Orochimaru from the start? Or had it been someone else he'd been concerned about? Ai had been around before Root had been disbanded.

"You are pretty sharp. Yes, everything is related, but there isn't much I can actually tell you. Not because it's classified, or anything like that, it's simply because we don't know much ourselves." Kakashi set his elbows on his knees, dropping his hands to hang down.

"I don't know anything either."

"I'm not saying you do, but you might can shed some light on his interest in you. For example, he wants Sasuke for being the last of his bloodline."

"Not _the_ last," Ai imputed. Kakashi blinked. Well, he supposed it wasn't an _unknown_ tale. She had lived with, and around, shinobi.

"No, but I imagine if Orochimaru could have gotten to Itachi, he wouldn't be after his younger brother. You do have a bloodline though, right?"

"I've been told that, but I can't control it. Hence the 'careful, Ai might blow up a building' routine people have around me."

"Or a training ground?" Once that had been discovered it had gotten around the village pretty quickly. Ai shrugged. "Either way, are you _sure_ you can't control it?" Kakashi's eye drifted over to look at Abel.

Ai set her hand on its head. "I don't think this is part of it," she explained, "or if it is, I do it on accident."

"During heightened emotional stress?"

"I blow things up during heightened emotional stress."

She seemed pretty stuck on that. With an attitude like that he wasn't surprised she kept blowing things up. "Surely there was _some_ reason behind their creation then?"

They sat in silence for a few moments as Ai thought. "Life in Cloud isn't easy for someone alone, especially a child. I scrounged the streets for scrap bits of metal and pieced him together eventually. Abel was more reminiscent of a child's toy, or a puppet, then. I suppose I made him out of the desire for companionship and protection.

"Seth was a few years after I came here. After the…" she trailed off a moment, looking to where Sasuke had gone. He was nowhere in sight. "I had some friends that were Uchiha, after they were all killed, I suppose I was afraid. I've had a few close calls and I don't respond well to stress."

"So, you made him out of fear," Kakashi settled on using the masculine pronoun. Ai had, and he figured he'd go off of her example. "That explains their personalities, I suppose."

"I guess. I still have no clue how they've become what they are."

"You said that Abel started off little more than a trinket? So, he… grew?"

"I give them metal and they incorporate it into their bodies. Back in Cloud Abel was more bits of sheet metal that I managed to cut, eventually he began to take on the more bone-like appearance. I never did anything though. He was the size of a normal cat back then, until soon after the murders. Then, he, well," Ai looked away, rubbing at her cheek, obviously unsure and embarrassed. It took her a few moments to continue. "He asked me to give him metal, so he could grow."

There was something he hadn't expected to hear, it was no wonder she hesitated either. Bringing up voices in your head was always a delicate subject. Though, from what she said, it implied the Abel, and possibly the snake as well, had grown to better fit her needs. Or perhaps to better fulfill their roles.

But talking to her?

How did you bring that up without bring rude?

Well, Kakashi wasn't known for his tact.

"What do the voices say exactly?"

"Voice," Ai corrected. "I only hear one voice. What I get from Abel is more… impressions. And it's not like the voice tells me to kill people or anything like that."

Was that better? Kakashi wasn't sure. But he was learning a few curious things about her. He could see why Orochimaru was interested in her.

"So, when do we find Kabuto and beat him black and blue?" Ai asked, taking the incentive during their silence.

"Slow down there," he replied. "We don't know their current whereabouts. Not only that, but you'll leave this to the adults and the people who are _actually_ ninja."

"I know how to fight!"

"Fight? Maybe so. But you haven't gone through anywhere near the same amount of teaching and training an _Academy_ student has."

"I'm not afraid," she leaned forward as she snapped out the words.

"You don't have to be. One wrong move from you and you'll spend the rest of your life as an experiment." She dropped her eyes, her hands curling up in the dirt. Kakashi kept his voice firm to impart the importance of his words. "There are a lot of worse things than fighting and dying. And I promise you, Orochimaru _is_ one of those things. Bravado is great and all, but you'd be smart to fear him as well. There is a fine line between courage and stupidity." He could see shivers running through her body. Kakashi hoped that meant she was thinking about what he said.

Abel got up and came around to her side, head dipped to look at her bowed face. A tremor ran down the cat's body, clattering the metal of his body softly. Ai's hand went up to his head. All the while Kakashi watched the interaction, curious at the peculiar sight. The actions certainly _implied_ a conversation.

"Are we done for the day?" She finally spoke, her voice quiet. "I want to go –" The way she cut herself off suggested she had intended to say more. It wasn't hard to guess what. Could she really no longer even say the word 'home?' Kakashi felt a wave of sadness roll over him for the girl.

"Yes, we are."

"Good." Ai stood and walked off. Abel followed behind her, long tail listlessly trailing in the dirt.

The days continued in that vein for a while. It took a few for Sasuke to get past the snake, and reengage trying to get past Abel's defensive stance, but between the two metal creatures, he didn't make it to her again.

They also didn't have a repeat of Seth attempting to attack after the spar was called to an end. He figured that meant Ai was putting more effort into his control, which Kakashi thought was a good thing.

Sasuke was getting closer to making it past, and might would have, if Kakashi hadn't received a message, two and a half weeks into the training, that told him he didn't need to pick Ai up anymore.

If it hadn't been in Ibiki's hand, he probably would have gone anyway. He was sure Sasuke would be fine with her no longer showing up, at least. He and Ai hadn't gotten along very well, especially after her 'you're not a special snowflake, Uchiha, so stop acting like you're better than the rest of us' speech she shouted at him. He knew he wasn't a good judge on the matter of emotional progress, but she had seemed like she was getting better. Ai had seemed more focused and she'd been talking more by the end, with him, anyway.

He did find himself wondering what would happen with her though.

* * *

I want to thank you all for reading! It means a lot to me! I even updated before a the month mark! I actually ended up cutting off 3000 (ish) words off the end cause the chapter just kept growing longer and longer. Each chapter has grown in length... which good news means the next chapter is 3000 words done!


	7. Your Hands Can HealYour Hands Can Bruise

Happy year and twenty-five days anniversary from posting this story! Time sure goes by fast... Thank you to all who looked, reviewed, favorited, or alerted my story! I can't get enough of you people.

Also, I have a question for all that wouldn't mind answering. Are you peeps interested in a picture (sort of) of Ai and Abel? Not together sadly... but I drew up a picture of Abel, and magicked another one of Ai (though the cover art looks exactly like how I pictured her.)

There was once more here, but I decided to post the pictures anyway on Deviantart, you can find them under my username 'Rykaspar.' A google search will easily bring it up.

Something for you all to consider as you read my 11K+ chapter I whipped up for you... it got so out of control, but I wanted to finish this section... Sorry for the long everything. Thanks for reading!

* * *

Silver Streams

Your Hands Can Heal, Your Hands Can Bruise

※

Ai lounged on the couch, slowly circulating her chakra through her body. Feeling it flow, warm under her skin. It sparked, popping like crackling wood.

Kakashi was late.

Later than usual for him, anyway.

She grabbed onto the sparkling chakra pushing it to the center of her belly, dousing it.

It wasn't even that which was bothering her.

A purple clad, glasses wearing figure flashed in her mind's eye and the chakra in her center flared. No, it was another that she was truly angry with. Kakashi had merely given her a direction to point that wrath in.

If she saw Kabuto again… she'd make sure he became a fine red mist.

She was pulled out of her dark musings at a sharp rap on the front door. Ai looked up. That didn't _sound_ like Kakashi's knock. She stood and shuffled over to the door to open it. Filling the entrance way with his bulk was Ibiki.

She stared at him, waiting.

"The Hokage wishes to see you," he stated after he finished studying her. _That_ caused Ai to blink. Ibiki's words and presence at her door didn't _necessarily_ precede a bad thing.

"Am I under arrest?"

"Do you want to be?" His steely eyes said that he certainly _would_ arrest her if she didn't come along with him. In lieu of being frog marched through the streets of Konoha in her ratty pajamas, and giving everyone that saw them _more_ reason to gossip about her, Ai turned around and walked back into the apartment, leaving the door open for Ibiki to follow her in. "Take a shower and get changed," he commanded to her back.

Abel sat up from the end of the couch and watched Ibiki as he entered the apartment, the tall man remaining in the genkan. The cat tilted his head and stared at Ibiki with his empty sockets and grinning skull. Ai trialed her fingers across his head as she passed to the back of the apartment, catching a flash of fire in her mind.

She took only ten minutes to prepare herself, partly because she didn't want to delay too long and partly because Ibiki's presence in the apartment was unsettling. Her hair was still dripping as the pair walked down the streets towards the Hokage's office, but the rising heat of the day would stop that soon. The roads of Konoha weren't too busy this early in the morning, but the civilians that dotted the streets parted for the two as they strode purposefully down the main thoroughfare of the village.

No one quite made a hole in a crowd like Ibiki, though, in her opinion, she ran a close second. Between the two of them, she was somewhat surprised all the civilians hadn't cleared out entirely. Head of interrogation and the crazy girl together weren't the most comforting sight.

Ai didn't live too far from the Academy so it didn't take long before Ibiki walked her into the Hokage's office. Inside, on the right of the room, there were two other ninja beside the leader of the Leaf Village. One had dark hair, red-framed sunglasses over his eyes, and wore his hitai-ate at a slight slant.

 _Cawing crows, crowd of subdued voices. Pressure, pushing, tugging the mind._

The other was older than the first with long blond hair done up in a ponytail and had teal eyes. This man's forehead protector was on a purple band and over his ninja flak jacket he wore a red sleeveless haori.

 _River flows strong and calm. Nurture life on the bank. Peel, pull, reveal._

After noting those two, her eyes returned to the Hokage, who was sitting behind his desk, wearing his red and white Hokage uniform. She had never met him face-to-face before. She'd heard people describe him a 'friendly,' but he certainly didn't seem that way to her.

 _Old books, old friends, old dreams, old ways. Fire burning strong._

"We have some questions for you, Ai," the Hokage finally spoke after having studied her and let her study him. Ibiki took up a place just behind and to the left of her. She stood before the Hokage's desk, waiting for him to continue. "Tell us, do you know anything about the location of Kabuto Yakushi?"

Ai felt rage roar up within her at his name. "Is he the one that killed Hayate?" She asked instead.

"Kabuto showed a great deal of interest in you while in the Leaf Village," he ignored her question, "and we wish to know if you have any knowledge about where he may currently be." Her mind hissed. He was really asking her if they were working together. How _dare_ he think she would hurt Hayate. He was her guardian, her friend, her teacher, her brother.

"No," she ground out, biting back the urge to shout: 'No! How dare you ask me such a thing!' "I don't know where he is. He always kept showing up at my work and at other random places in the village. It was creepy. Also, I never liked him either."

"What did you find so disagreeable?"

"Besides what I just said? He felt like a hospital. Sterile. Disinfected and cleaned to the point that you'd never notice the blood on his hands. I don't like hospitals."

"I have heard about your unique talent for discerning facts about people." Ai made a face. That was the most diplomatic way she'd ever heard someone say 'so, I was told you hear voices in your head.' She guessed she shouldn't be surprised he knew either. "Tell me, when you first met Kabuto, what was your initial impression of him?"

Ai closed her eyes, pulling up the feelings she'd hidden away so long ago. " _You know only what I want you to. I know everything you don't what me to. Your mouth is poison; your mouth is wine. You think your dreams are the same as mine._ " It left her feeling oily and gross. Like she'd scooped up pond scum. She opened her eyes to see the Hokage's contemplative face. "He looked too fair and felt too foul," Ai added.

The room remained silent, until the old man had figured out his next words, or perhaps he had just needed time to digest hers. "What do you know of Orochimaru?" Was he still accusing her of working with Kabuto?

"Beyond what I have read in books? Nothing."

"He has never approached you?"

"No," Ai paused, "at least not to my knowledge, but I would not know what I should look for to recognize him."

"He was the one we asked you to follow, before your accident in the Chunin Exams."

"Ah," she commented, tilting her head, trying to remember. "Old parchment. Dry and fragile, like a snakeskin baked too long in the sun." She shook her head. "It was hard to feel, Gaara was so loud, and when he interrupted my jutsu, he flooded me."

"What were your impressions of the young Sand boy?"

That wasn't too hard to answer, Ai could still see the images she'd seen all those weeks ago. Her mind buzzed. " _You were never loved._ He's lonely and hurt. Angry. But beneath it all," she shut her eyes once more against the incoming wave. " _Screaming. Crying. Deep within._ " She moved her hands to touch her cheeks, she was starting to feel antsy." _Blood, dry on my face. I've traded everything that I love, for this one thing. Can you hear me?_ "

The Hokage hummed. "But you felt nothing else from Orochimaru?" The Hokage pressed. "What you know may help us find Hayate's killer."

She could feel adrenaline kicking in, shaking started as she continued to push back. "Green. I see green. Not green like the leaves or Guy's jumpsuit. It's _I'm breathing in the chemicals. Radioactive, radioactive._ "

A hand clapped down on her shoulder, breaking her away from the voice. "That's enough, Ai." She hadn't realized she was so close to hyperventilating. Ibiki steered her back from where she had wandered away from. His hand briefly squeezed Ai's shoulder before releasing her. She could still feel shivers running through her body and she felt vaguely ill.

"Do you have anything else you wish to add?"

Ai shook her head. "No. Nothing I can think of." Her brain felt tired, worn and stretched.

"Very well," the Hokage conceded. "If you wouldn't mind stepping outside while we discuss amongst ourselves." Ai nodded, tucking her hands into her pockets and slouching out of the room. Ibiki closed the door behind her.

※※※※※

"Well?" The Hokage asked the other men in the room.

"Nothing she said was a lie," Inoichi began, "for her, at least. That doesn't mean things did not escape her notice, however. She's also angry. Very angry. I don't think you need my skills to have noticed the way she responded to Kabuto's name. She's convinced he's the one that killed Hayate." Inoichi licked his lips. "Which I believe is the reason behind her lack of chakra control. Perhaps not the anger specifically for previous occurrences, but I believe it's all from emotional trauma. Between the lack of control and her volatile emotions, well, we saw the training ground."

"I agree, Hokaga-sama," Ibiki contributed. "Ai's past has had many unfortunate experiences. It is obvious that she has had trouble overcoming these instances, not unusual for civilian-based people raised outside of shinobi culture. Unluckily for her, she carries a bloodline, which requires a certain amount of education to wield properly. It is my belief that shinobi training for emotional discipline as well as chakra management can lower these incidents."

"Along with the discovery of _what_ her bloodline is," Inoichi added. "She's currently fumbling around in the dark."

"I have heard a few reports that she seems to have an affinity towards metal. Not unlike the Magnet Release recorded in the Village Hidden in the Sand. Is this correct?" Sarutobi asked.

"Yes," Ibiki agreed. "In contrast to that Release, she has been documented with three elemental affinities. The possibility, however rare, that she may be in possession of a Kekkei Tota should not be ruled out."

Inoichi gave a light snort, interrupting. "A Kekkei Tota?" His head shook ruefully. "No wonder she has problems. Three affinities at her age, while unable to even use _one_ element. It seems this world conspires against her."

The taller man nodded. "I have seen her mold metal in small amounts, as well as a few of my personnel, these events have only occurred when she has been in a good mood.

"We must also remember that there is also her cat, Abel. He is made of metal, yet she claims she has done little to him personally and that she doesn't know how or why he works. Which I can add nothing to, either.

"Additionally, I believe she may be… wary of her own skills, to detrimental effects. To my knowledge, most of her experiences with molding chakra to perform a jutsu have had negative outcomes. I doubt the explosions help the situation."

"I imagine they are likely from the suffusion of one element being too strong over the others," Aoba added, to which Ibiki nodded his agreement.

"What of this chakra disease she's claimed to have suffered? Could it have had an effect as well?" This question from the Hokage was directed at Inoichi.

"I'm not _that_ kind of doctor," Inoichi prefaced, "but I suppose there is a chance that it affects her control. Yet, at the same time, no such thing has ever been recorded, so I cannot fully commit to that possibility. From what I understand, it sounds as if their chakra systems turned against them. Though, admittedly it is a little confusing, she claims to have watched as her companion's bodies turned to _dust_. To me that implies natural energy was at work. I suppose, it could be this disease, or whatever it was, affected their ability to be around it. Ai, it seems, was simply young enough to survive. At that age, a child's chakra system is still malleable and able to adapt to sudden changes."

"And these voices she hears? Aoba?"

The so named ninja took in a breath. "It's not like I could hear it myself, but…" he sighed a little. "There were moments when her emotions, which I add are exceptionally strong, reached a height and then… turned blank. The best way I can describe it, is that it felt like I was suddenly picking up static. These moments corresponded to when she would speak as if in a daze."

"Is it possible she has multiple personalities?"

"It's an _option_ ," Aoba hedged. "Not something we can uncover without further investigation." Inoichi nodded his head in agreement. "To be fair, when my skills first began to manifest, I thought I might've been going crazy too. It's not easy being young and catching snippets of other's thoughts or emotions."

"I'd recommend trying to get an admission from her over entering her mind to find out," the Yamanaka counseled. "If there is another personality, it can be dangerous to both parties during a transference. It may rise to defend the mind and end up damaging both people."

"Have you seen anything that may lend to this hypothesis, Ibiki?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps. She may sometimes have moments as if she's listening to something else, as how she does with Abel. She has behaved as if they hold conversations at times. These happenings have lessened over the years, but I doubt it is due to a falling frequency, more that she has stopped communing with him in public.

"I would like to add, that the solution may be as Aoba's. Ai may be catching onto strong thoughts or emotions. Possibly even from events far past. Moments, that have shaped us into the people we are today.

"Despite these circumstances, she has been a very efficient employee, even with those momentary lapses. In that aspect, I have nothing negative to say about her. She's quite brilliant and a hard worker."

The Hokage leaned back in his chair, scratching his fingers into his goatee. After a few minutes of contemplation, he finally spoke. "Aoba, I believe you may be best to handle this."

"Me?" The dark-haired ninja questioned, straightening up even further.

"Correct. Yugao would be a better pick for any training Ai may require, due to their already close relationship, nevertheless, she is needed to continue her ninja duties and is currently unavailable. You are capable enough to teach the girl. I suggest starting with balancing her chakra. Your skills are also uniquely suited to obtaining any information on this 'voice' of hers. If we're fortunate, it is merely a case similar to yours."

"Understood, Hokage-sama." Aoba bowed as he accepted his leader's decision.

"I believe it best if you spent as much time as you can with her as well. There is still the possibility of Orochimaru attempting to take her."

Aoba shuffled slightly. "With all due respect, sir. I don't believe I'm capable of handling a situation like that."

Ibiki chuffed slightly. "You'll have Abel as well," he supplied, "that cat is not a force to be taken lightly."

"I do not believe he will try kidnapping her within the village," Sarutobi contributed, leaning forward. "I also don't believe he will even approach her personally, he'll leave that to someone else, but in company, that probability is lower."

Aoba nodded, turning his attention to Ibiki, who of all in this room, knew Ai the best. "Any advice?"

"Don't rely on your skill alone, pay attention to her chakra, it's emotive, more than she at times. It'll clue you in to her actions before she will." Ibiki crossed his arms over his broad chest. "And be cautious, you'll feel her chakra building, like a heavy pressure in the air, before something explodes. You'll need to be particularly attentive to if you feel her chakra turn on _you_."

"It turns on _people_?" Aoba queried, gobsmacked.

Ibiki's face twisted, pulling his scars. "Either a horrible last-ditch defense or part of her fear response, is my theory. She doesn't have full-minded control and it turns on what is deemed a threat. Even if it may not be. Sort of a 'misdirected rage' or a 'more convenient target,' situation."

Aoba sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Great. You've actually seen this happen?"

"Two and a half weeks ago, during the Chunin Exams. Her chakra turned on the Sand genin, as if it were a rabid dog, when he interrupted her jutsu. Ended well for him, less so for her, which is why I said a 'horrible' last-ditch defense.

"Hayate told me of another occurrence between him and Ai, as well. Said she was in some sort of waking daze, he went to go snap her out of it, the moment they touched, he felt her chakra round on him. They both had some sort of mental exchange, but," he shrugged, "nothing bad happened then. Seems to be something of a Bloody Mist Roulette."

"That is _fascinating_ ," Inoichi near whispered, staring at Ibiki. "The Sand genin, he didn't touch her?" Ibiki shook his head. "It must have to do with when their ambient chakra come in contact then. It sounds like it might be similar to startling a person. While her chakra is… distracted in a jutsu, if yours touches hers, it whips around to… defend her?" The blond rubbed at his chin and cheek. "Or is it simply that she has such poor control of it that, it is an interruption she can't stop and which has disastrous consequences. Though, you said Hayate didn't have adverse side effects, perhaps it is affected by familiarity. And for it to have a mental exchange as well…" at this point her was talking more to himself than anyone else.

"Nerd out somewhere else," Aoba grumbled. Inoichi blinked back to the world of the living.

"Ah, sorry about that," he chuckled self-consciously. "but it _is_ an intriguing conundrum."

"Be that as it may," Ibiki spoke, his focus returning to Aoba. "Ai is… she's strange sometimes. She'll have a mindset that something is impossible despite seeing you do it. Keep that in mind as you teach her."

"Yeah, all right," he murmured.

"If that is all then?" At the three nods Sarutobi got in response he said, "Then let's invite her back in."

※※※※※

Outside, was now an Anbu member standing beside the door. She spared him a glance as she made her way to the few chairs opposite the office, Ai lounged in them, crossing her arms. His mask looked somewhat cat-like, striped with red and green, but she couldn't look at him, or it, long. The expressionless cat face was freaky and the porcelain practically glowed in the dim lighting.

The only thing she could hear from him was a soft creaking, like trees in a strong wind.

She also got a strong smell of wood. Not just one type either, she could smell pine, birch, balsam, walnut, and eucalyptus among the scent. Like she'd stepped into a very varied forest. It was actually sort of nice.

"Are they worried I'm going to run away?" He didn't say anything in response, but she was pretty sure he was watching her, it was hard to tell with that mask, but she was getting that 'watched' feeling. Instead the two of them remained in their silence, waiting for what was to come next. Ai had resorted to ignoring him the best she could while picking her fingernails immaculately clean by the time she was called back in by Ibiki.

"Before you leave, I want to introduce you to these two men. This is Inoichi Yamanaka and Aoba Yamashiro," they nodded to her as their names were told. "Aoba has agreed to take over your guardianship."

 _"More likely he was ordered to take over guarding me,"_ she thought vindictively, remembering what Kakashi had told her.

"You may continue living in your current residence, but you will meet up with him daily, unless otherwise prearranged."

 _"Definitely ordered to guard me."_

"Additionally," the Hokage continued, "he will be giving you lessons to further your chakra control, your current lack is a danger, now grown to a point I can no longer overlook it. After a sufficient amount of time passes, Inoichi will be the one to check your progress. This will continue until you have been deemed in control of yourself. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Ibiki's hand found her shoulder. "Sir," she added.

"Excellent. I'll leave the specifics of your schedule to be figured out between Aoba and yourself. You may go." His words were apparently a dismissal for all of them. Aoba and Inoichi let her head to the door before them, while Ibiki got the door for her once more. "And Ai," she paused in the doorway, looking back over her shoulder at the old man. "I am sorry for your loss. Hayate was a talented young man. He cared for you deeply." Ai curled her fingers into tight fists at her side, turning to completely exit the room.

A few feet from the door, Ibiki stopped her. Inoichi continued past with a nod to the taller man. "You put as much hard work into this as you have while working your administrative duties, you'll do fine."

Ai nodded mutely. She wasn't happy with the turn of events, but she'd deal with it. At least they weren't evicting her from the village.

She knew she had been telling herself to improve her chakra control and Ai had attempted to do so in the past before. She'd end up slacking off after barely beginning. Chakra had kind of lost its 'new toy shine' after a little while. Maybe it would be better to be forced into it, than leave it up to her.

Hayate hadn't enforced the training either. He'd told her if she didn't want to, she didn't have to, as long as she had a lid on the explosions. Which was shaky ground at best.

The only thing he'd really kept her going at was sword training, which was more for the meditative aspects, but came with the side benefit of self-defense.

Perhaps this would even help her in the long run. Kabuto was a ninja and she had a snowball's chance in Suna at noon against him. With training could she have better odds? Most of her skill relied on surprise to start with.

Ibiki gave her a firm nod in response to her pathetic one and made a swift, trench coat billowing exit. When the large man vanished around the curve of the hallway Aoba stepped up to her side.

"Well," he used a finger to push his sunglasses up further, "it's still early in the day. How about we get some lunch and get to know each other before we start on our exercises?" He phrased it as a question, but Ai was ninety-nine percent sure it wasn't one.

"Sure," she agreed anyway. Letting him lead her out of the Hokage Tower. He didn't take her too far, which was good since they were walking together in _beyond_ awkward silence, and the pair ended up at some barbeque restaurant. Once given a table by the waiter, the silence was broken.

"Water," Ai stated when asked what she wanted to drink. Aoba followed her example and ordering the food for them both, once the waiter was gone, he changed his attention to her.

"I'm not going to insult your intelligence by giving you my name again, so we'll move past that. Despite being assigned as your –"

"Handler," Ai interrupted, elbow on the table and cheek in her hand, looking out at the near empty restaurant. She was the picture of bored insolence and if Aoba didn't know it was a defense tactic meant to create emotional distance and convey her unhappiness with the situation, he might have gotten upset.

"Guardian," he corrected, even though what she said was true, and continued, "I wasn't in that room for that purpose. I was there because I'm capable to feeling strong emotions from people and when strong enough, hear their thoughts."

Surprise surged through Ai, panic following quickly on its heels. With a stiffening of her spine, she took a breath, tucking those feelings away, hopefully before Aoba felt them. If what he said was true. His slightly risen eyebrow meant she may not have been fast enough.

"Inoichi and I were there to gauge your mental faculties and wellbeing. Which, you probably realized since we are both here, was found wanting. From that point, you know the rest." Aoba stopped talking as the waiter returned depositing their meat and drinks. Ai began to draw symbols in the perspiring surface of her glass as Aoba quickly set out food on the grill to cook. "Now, there is something I need to know to begin to figure out where to start when it comes to your training. Are then any chakra exercises or jutsu you feel confident in executing?"

Ai blinked at him, debating the benefits of complying with him or not. While she might not like it, she should at least be courteous, and working with him would probably make life easier.

She idly drew the symbol for fire into her glass.

It brought up an interesting point. The Hokage had said to her she was a problem he could no longer ignore. If she didn't try, what would happen to her? Ai paused as dark-clad figures with white masks flashed in her mind. She didn't have anyone to save her anymore.

Sure, there was Yugao, but she wasn't her official guardian, without Hayate, she was out in the open.

The last person may very well be the Hokage and Ai wasn't sure he was even on her side.

Looking back at the dark-haired ninja, Ai rotated her right hand to be palm up. She channeled her chakra into it, pulling the warm liquid sensation down her arm and into her palm. She could see what she wanted in her eyes and without even a flicker, a small floating ball of chakra-light coalesced above her hand. She watched as Aoba's eyebrow rose again.

"It was the first thing I ever learned," she explained, staring at the glowing orb. Closing her fingers around it and watching as it lit her hand from the inside. The red slowly faded back to her flesh color.

"I'm impressed. That there tells me you've got some pretty decent control hiding somewhere in there. Hayate teach you that trick?" he asked, picking the meat off the grill and separating it equally on two plates. Ai stiffened at the mention of Hayate's name. She still hadn't gotten used to the silence in the apartment yet.

"No," she responded before popping a piece into her mouth. Once empty she spoke again. "Yugito taught it to me because I was afraid of the dark."

"I'm not familiar with anyone by that name in the village."

"Because she's not. I learned it in Lightning. I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise that they teach it as a control exercise there." She ate another piece and looked up to see Aoba pushing his glasses up his nose. "You didn't read my file, did you?"

"I left that to Inoichi, actually. I see now I should have read it too." Aoba tapped the table top a few times in thought. "What about your cat?"

"What about him?" Ai shoved another piece of meat into her mouth.

"You two have a… mental connection," he ventured tentatively. Ai's response was to shove more food into her mouth and look away. Every aspect of her body language said she didn't want to talk about it. "I get it," he told her. The flat look she sent him said she disagreed. "Yeah, I don't know many who can truthfully say that, but I really do get it. When I was your age, my empathy started up. At first it wasn't much, I just thought I was good a picking up on people's emotions, you know, reading facial expressions. Don't get me wrong, I was and I am." He definitely had her attention. "When I was fifteen, however, it got so bad that I would tear up if I stood too close to a pregnant woman. My emotions fluctuated so wildly just from walking down the street, that I started to think I was going crazy. Split personality crazy. I could hardly ever bring myself to look a person in the eye for fear they'd see something was wrong with me. But as cliché as it sounds, crazy people _really don't_ wonder if they're going crazy."

She wouldn't meet his eyes. Not that it was an easy task with his sunglasses, but it told him, he'd pretty much hit the nail on the head. He waited for her to talk before he continued.

"What did you do?" she finally asked meekly.

"Got help," he told her honestly. "It wasn't easy, and I grew up here, but it's hard telling people you have a problem you can't control. I kept imagining how disappointed everyone would be in me, knowing I let it get so out of hand. It turned out better than I could have hoped.

"For me, learning to control my empathic absorption was a matter of honing my chakra control so finely that it felt impossible at times. To the point it became so second nature, that I'm not sure I could go back if I tried. That's what I'm hoping will work for you. It's the reason the Hokage asked me to handle your training. We appear to have a similar case."

"And if it's different?"

Aoba leaned back in the bench seat and shrugged. "Then we figure out what works for you. Don't be fooled though, this won't be easy. I'm going to put you through so many chakra proficient exercises you won't even remember falling asleep at night."

"Great." Ai sipped her water. "So, how does this all work?"

"I'll learn more once we start, but currently my hypothesis is that this is a case of you being forced to run before you could walk. Academy kids learn to access and use their chakra over time, in small amounts, you had a traumatic experience which opened the flood gates, so to speak." Aoba paused long enough to wet his throat. "Which, honestly, you should have been learning this earlier, but I can sort of see the reasoning behind why you didn't. Hayate was pretty restricted in his teachings. I've been granted a bit more leeway. Not that I'll be teaching you to hurl fireballs around."

"I wouldn't expect anything of the sort," Ai drily replied.

"You know," Aoba said, eating some of his own food, "I don't think this will be as horrible as I thought."

Ai sent him a dead-eyed glare. "Gee, thanks."

"No problem," was his casual reply. Ai narrowed her eyes, deciding to eat as much as she could stomach. She wasn't paying, after all.

An hour later, and uncomfortably full, Ai found herself at some training ground or other, sitting in the grass listening as Aoba explained the principle sticking a leaf to your forehead and holding it there via chakra.

" _He can lecture longer the Iruka_ ," Ai thought dryly, twirling the leaf he had giving her between her fingers and rubbing her left ear at the sound cawing. He kept going on about how her chakra natures might react if she wasn't careful. It was like he expected her to take out half the village if she channeled too much chakra into her hand.

Ignoring his voice, Ai trapped the leaf between her hands and pushed chakra up into her right hand. Pulling her left hand away, she looked to the leaf.

And watched as it drifted to the ground.

"Well," Aoba said, hands on his hips, staring at her, "that's not the best first attempt I've even seen."

Ai frowned and smacked her hand down on the leaf. She channeled chakra once again, encompassing the leaf. When she lifted her hand, the little foliage shot off to the left a foot before settling back into the grass.

"Try putting it on your forehead," Aoba advised.

"Is there a difference between the hand and forehead?"

"Most people can't channel as much chakra into their foreheads as their hands. Which is your current problem. Once you get the feel for it there, it won't be as difficult to stick it to your hand."

The blonde hummed, picking up the leaf and sandwiching it between her hands. When she separated the two, the leaf went up in a crackle of flame and a puff of smoke. Ai frowned.

"I see you are defenestrating my advice."

"Combusting it, actually," she corrected.

The twist of Aoba's lips said he wasn't impressed. "Is there a reason why?"

"Well, I didn't mean to burn it up."

"I meant the ignoring me part."

"Oh, that. I'm not going to stick a leaf on my forehead and look like a moron." He was even more unimpressed with those words.

"Seriously? You're letting your vanity hinder you?"

"Yes," was her instant response. Aoba sighed, putting his face into his hand. The word 'teenagers' was muffled by his appendage. Ai plucked a leaf off the ground.

"Use a fresh one. Dead ones are more susceptible to chakra intrusion and thus more likely to disintegrate." She raised a questioning eyebrow at that, but got up and plucked a few leaves from a nearby tree. Ai pinned her second leafy victim between her palms. "You're really not going to –"

"Nope," Ai interrupted. The leaf shot up into the air upon release. Catching it, Ai began again.

At the end of forty-five minutes, Aoba had settled on a spot of grass not far away and Ai was stickling leaves up her arm.

"I'll give you this much, you did manage to pick it up pretty quick, once you figured it all out."

"It's not too hard after you get the feel for it."

"It would have been easier if you had started with your forehead," her companion muttered, watching as she stuck three leaves on her shoulder.

"Maybe," Ai conceded, "but I'd rather this way."

Aoba's lips thinned and Ai stuck a blade of grass to the back of her hand.

"I think we could advance a bit further. Your chakra good?"

Ai paused a moment to get a feel for it. "Yeah, I didn't expend it quickly, so it's still good."

"Then, it's time to move on to trees." All the leaves, grass, and other particulate she'd stuck to her arm fell off. Ai glanced to the nearest tree as if it were about to uproot itself and lunge at her. "It's not much different," Aoba began, "just done through your feet instead."

"Um, hard pass." Ai interrupted before her could get more out.

"Excuse me?" Aoba's tone was nothing other than incredulous.

"I've seen you people," the older man's eyebrow rose that that turn of phrase, "jumping around trees and buildings. I have _no_ desire to break my neck."

"I'm not going to let you break your neck climbing a tree. I'd be a pretty poor teacher if I did."

"Accidents happen."

Aoba stood abruptly and fluidly. "Are you really not going to even try?" Ai looked to the tree again, as if she half expected it to have moved closer. Abel, who had been laying silently in the grass behind her, lifted his head. He looked at her and shivered, creating a soft humming sound that lasted only a few seconds.

"I'm not going to be able to out-stubborn or bargain my way out of this, am I?" Ai sighed.

"No." Aoba's eyes flickered between the two. Had the cat just told her off? With another sigh Ai stood and walked over to her leafy arch-nemesis.

"So how does this work?" she grumbled, standing nearby the tree. Aoba joined her and began to explain, expounding more on the theory behind the tree-climbing exercise. When he finally demonstrated, Ai stared at him warily.

Aoba hopped off the tree. "Now you try."

Ai walked forward, facing the tree. Stopping close to the trunk, she paused as she felt inside herself for her chakra and pulled it down to her feet. Lifting her foot, she stuck it to the tree. After a few moments she leaned back, her foot easily disconnecting from the bark. Ai lent forward once more, repeating the action a few times to the same result.

Her teacher pressed both hands into his face, pushing his sunglasses into his hair as he groaned into his hands. "And you thought you would look stupid with a leaf on your forehead." The glare she whipped his way was withering.

Or would have been if he wasn't an elite ninja, unintimidated by a teenage girl's disapproval.

And didn't have his face buried in his hands.

It was at that point that training stymied. Ai refused to actually attempt to climb it in worry of breaking her neck, despite her teacher's promises that he'd catch her if she somehow got in the position to break her neck, or even high enough.

 _"Pain is a good motivator."_

 _"This is why all you people are deranged."_

She also ignored all his advice that probably _would_ have helped if she'd taken him up on his words.

 _"This is one of those things that every part of me is screaming that this shouldn't be done."_

 _"Take a breath and relax. This isn't impossible, you saw me do it. You just need to find the right concentration of chakra."_

Even after Abel showed himself capable of climbing the tree without the use of his clawed feet, Ai still couldn't bring herself to quite trust in the warm-liquid feeling of the chakra to _actually_ stick her to a tree and break _all_ the rules of gravity. Abel's show brought up multiple questions from Aoba.

 _"He can use chakra? How? Does it come from you? Is it your store that supplies his?"_

 _"Yes. I don't know? Just like you or me? No, he has his own supply separate from mine."_

Their first day together ended after Ai had burned through her limit hours later. Which had impressed Aoba.

 _"For somebody with no training, you have a surprisingly large amount."_

 _"That's not it at all. My supply is average at best, I just have high chakra recuperation."_

 _"That's pretty unusual."_

 _"So I've been told. It's the reason I eat so much, like having an extremely accelerated metabolism."_

 _"I noticed that part," he grumbled, his wallet was noticeably lighter._

The second day Aoba added 'physical conditioning' to their schedule. She would have to run around, do push-ups, sit-ups, and other physical exercises while circulating chakra through her body. She complained excessively to him.

 _"I don't see why you're so upset. You swing a sword around every day."_

 _"Please, every other," Ai wheezed, in her sixth lap of the training field. Aoba rolled his eyes, not that she could see that, but his facial expression relayed the action._

By the middle of the day, Ai was laying in the grass panting and trying to suck up as much coolness from the green-stuff she could.

 _"Did you know the average temperature of Konoha is the same as the surface of the sun?"_

 _"Really? You think the sun would be hotter."_

 _"Yeah, really. I might spontaneously combust because of it."_

 _"That doesn't seem unusual for you, but I'll make sure to get out of the splash zone."_

He'd then dropped a water bottle on her stomach, further winding her. Ai stuck her tongue out at him for that. To which he told her a lady shouldn't make such faces and that it was unbecoming. She flipped him the bird when he turned his back.

On day three, they repeated more of the same, but Aoba brought up a different conversation during their lunch break.

"I've been thinking."

"A dangerous pastime." He stared at her until she rolled her eyes and looked away.

"I've been thinking," he stated again. "You claim Abel is completely autonomous from you. His own separate entity. That should mean he has his own feelings and thoughts." Ai nodded her agreement to his words.

"He does, that's how we communicate."

"Then theoretically, I should be able to hear him."

"I suppose? Have you not?"

"No," Aoba admitted. "I'm not saying he doesn't though. Merely that he may be more… emotionally contained than, well, _you_ , for sure, but more than most as well."

"He is a lot calmer than Seth."

"Seth?" He repeated slowly.

"Ah, um, I probably should have mentioned that earlier." Aoba's eyebrow rose at her less-than-contrite tone. Ai proceeded to roll up her sleeves, causing Aoba to raise his brow even further. She showed him the inked seal on the underside of her arms. "Seth." She felt him pulse, shifting in whatever dimension he was in and the seals began to luminesce, but Ai cut off the chakra flow to them, ending the shimmer. "He's probably better met some other time though."

"Why haven't you told anyone about this?"

"Some people know," she demurred quietly, not putting much force behind it.

Aoba scratched his head, fingers threading through his hair. "I see." He watched while she gently traced the seal on her left arm. "Hayate taught you that seal?" Ai nodded. "You realize I have to tell the Hokage this, right?" She nodded again. "Who are the others that know?"

"Yugao and Kakashi. Sasuke too, I suppose. And Iruka."

The older man rubbed the back of his neck. With those names, it was possible the Hokage already knew, but why would Hayate keep it silent. Guilt flashed through Aoba. Maybe Hayate _had_ told the Hokage, and from there they'd kept it silent. He shouldn't assume the worst. Hayate had been a very loyal ninja. Had he been _that_ worried about her, though. Aoba let out a breath that wasn't quite a sigh.

"Right. We've gotten off track. What I wanted to know, is if I could touch him."

They had discussed their respective skills – to a certain extent, Aoba held some things back, it wasn't safe to tell everything to a relative stranger – over the past two days. Ai already knew his empathic sense was stronger when in physical contact with the individual.

Ai blinked her blue eyes at him. "Abel?" After Aoba nodded she glanced at the metal cat. "I guess…" Her tone was uncertain. "No one has ever asked before. Ask him," Ai shrugged, adding, "I can't promise he won't bite your arm off though."

"Lovely," he murmured, turning to the metal cat. Abel slowly turned his head, pointing his empty sockets at him. Ai may not have been intimidating with all her glares and sour looks, but between Abel's empty eyes and grinning saw-teeth, Aoba found his nerves waking up to say hello. He showed none of that nerve however and despite feeling somewhat foolish – See Ai, _some_ people can suck up their pride for two seconds – he asked the cat. "Abel, is it all right if I place my hand on your head?" The cat titled his head as if in consideration of the question, before he lowered his skull in a small nod and presented the top of his metal cranium. He had seen Abel's self-cognizance in his seemingly unrelated movement to Ai. However, that could be explained away with Ai being _very_ skilled in the art of subtle control over him.

Touching his head, however, proved different. He felt their chakras touch and mingle. Abel's a smooth, comforting warm, like laying in sunlight, not unlike Ai's, suffused up his arm as he allowed the mingling. Emotions, thoughts, feelings, he got nothing from the cat though. Aoba was about to pull away when he felt the chakra warm even more, heating like a stove top. A sharp, blinding rush of emotion pierced him. Love, devotion, the strongest sense that he would _die_ for Ai invaded his mind and for the briefest moment those were _his_ emotions, thoughts, and feelings too. An image of a young, handsome dark-haired man flashed in his mind.

Aoba yanked his hand away from the cat and everything faded away.

Ai was looking at him with wide, awed eyes.

"Did you…?" Ai shook her head.

"I only know that he talked to you, not what about."

Contemplation settled on Aoba's face for a few moments before it vanished and he spoke. "We're going on a field trip today." Ai blinked at him, her eyes asking the question before she voiced it. "I want to get a feel of this… sense you have. We'll wander the village until you have one of your… trances?"

Ai frowned at him and pursed her lips. "You want to… walk around the village holding a fourteen-year-old girl's hand? I'm pretty sure there are better ways to get arrested, if that's what you're trying to do." It was Aoba's turn to blink.

"Well, when you put it like that…"

"I have an idea though," she supplied. He gestured for her to continue. "I don't know how "trance-y" it will be, but the cemetery. I avoid the place because I always feel waves of grief near it, but I think it should work. Easier than finding a person, anyway." Ai shrugged.

"It doesn't need to be a person?"

"More often than not." Ai shrugged. "But like I said, I avoid the place, so I can't say for sure if it will give me one of those moments."

"All right, it's worth a shot anyway," he agreed. "When we're close enough, let me know and we'll see what happens from there." Ai nodded in response, getting up off the ground. Aoba let out a soft breath, he really hopped he didn't wake up dead after this.

The trip over took time since they were nearly on the other side of the village from the graveyard, but a block from the site Ai stopped. She could already feel the air growing oppressive with the strong sense of sadness.

"Here?" her handler asked.

She nodded. "Can you really not feel it?" Aoba shook his head in denial.

"Only from people." Aoba held out his hand to her. Ai took a few glances around, checking for people.

"Let it be known that I do this under protest."

"Noted."

Before she grabbed his hand, Ai shifted enough to reach back and trailed her fingers across Abel's skull. He shivered and Ai got the sensation of being watched, letting her know he'd be there. "All right," she said, unsure to which three of them she spoke. Putting her hand in Aoba's warmer one, the pair made for the entrance of the graveyard. The dark-haired ninja's brow furrow, already picking up of some grief, but it was mostly hidden by Ai's own anxiety, but he let her to continue leading him closer.

With each step, he could feel her more jittery. It wasn't until they crossed the threshold and had taken a few more steps that it hit him.

Hard.

Grief. Sadness. Depression. Loss.

His vision grew fuzzy, but he couldn't fight off the wave of disorientation.

Weeping. Wailing. Out-right bawling.

He could hear it clearly.

 _They say people come, they say people go._

Two figures, blurry and completely unrecognizable materialized. Foggy and impossible to make out.

 _It feels like the end of my world._

There was only a painful, crushing press of sorrow. Desperation. Need.

Just as it became unbearable, Aoba felt an odd sensation. Like he was falling.

The phenomenon vaporized instantly as he hit the ground.

Hard.

Aoba looked back, Abel's skeletal paw pulled away from his ankle. The cat studied him silently. He hadn't felt such a bad emotional trip since he had been a teenager and despite the rude awakening, he was grateful to be snapped out of it.

Whatever _it_ was.

Even so, the emotions still lingered, draining away much more slowly. He could feel something damp on his cheeks, with numb shock, Aoba realized he had been crying. A soft clatter reminded him that he wasn't alone.

When he got to his knees and faced Ai, he cursed.

Then he cursed again.

Ai was curled over her knees, face in her hands, weeping. Softly weeping, but still. Aoba was pretty sure he had taken her down with him when Abel had yanked his leg out from under him, but he knew that wasn't the reason for her tears.

He cursed once more before calling her name. When she didn't respond, he tried once more. He was hesitant to touch her, concerned that she was still in whatever they had been in and that he might get pulled back.

Abel looped around him, nudging his head into her arms.

Deciding to take the risk, and taking great care to avoid skin contact, he hauled her up with him. It took very little effort to remove the both of them from the area with a body flicker. Landing them a bit more than a block away, he found a nice alleyway to sit as she calmed herself, which he was grateful to see the shivers of her body were already slowing as her breathing took on a controlled rhythmic quality of a breathing exercise.

Aoba leaned his head against the wall and quickly scrubbed the dry tear tracks from his face. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but he did know one thing.

That voice hadn't been Ai's.

※※※※※

Ai sat at the table in the apartment, grinding away at a mortar and pestle. Aoba had called the day over after their trying trip to the graveyard. He hadn't shown as much wear as she did, but even Ai could tell he had become damn near jumpy in comparison to his earlier self. Which was saying a lot since he was a ninja and they were particularly good at hiding their thoughts and emotions from her untrained eyes.

He did take her for an early dinner, though, at the same barbeque place they'd gone the first day. Abel had rattled from the roof, alerting her to a person watching her. She recognized the building across the street as the hotel the Sand shinobi had been staying. A second-floor window was open and sitting on the sill was the black-clad Kankuro, staring down at her. He continued staring until she broke eye contact when Aoba called her name.

Inside, they had come across three-fourths of Team Asuma, returned from their own training. Asuma had been thrilled enough to see Aoba that the five of them had shared a table. She was officially introduced to them, but it was still a somewhat awkward dinner, despite Choji's best efforts to include her. She tried to be polite, but Ai was just too exhausted to really care about the correct social manners required of her.

Afterwards, Aoba dropped her back off at the apartment and she hadn't seen him all the rest of the day. He also hadn't shown up at his usual time the following day either. While the break was nice, Ai viciously crushed the charcoal in the mortar, she was bored. She'd grown used to being kept busy and now that she wasn't training, she was sulking.

"Couldn't even be bothered to send a note," she grumbled, getting satisfaction out of the harsh crunches.

A knock on the door startled her out of her contemplations. Throwing a hand towel over the mortar and pestle, she moved to answer. Abel was already in the hallway, a short rattle from him told her who was on the other side. Ai answered the door with a frown plastered on her face.

Completely shameless about leaving her high and dry, stood a smiling Aoba at the door. "You are a lucky lady," he said when he saw her. She cocked an eyebrow at him, but he didn't explain his previous statement further. "Go get ready."

"For what?" Ai's question threw him off. His grin slid from his face.

"Do you not pay attention to current events?" He didn't let her answer that. "The Chunin Exam finals! That's today, and I netted you a seat."

Ai let the silence stretch into the awkward zone before speaking. "Should I be impressed?"

Aoba's face twisted like he'd bitten into a lemon. "Go get ready."

Rolling her eyes, Ai stepped out of the doorway, letting the silent invitation to enter hang in the air. "Do I have to go?" she asked, going further into the apartment, already knowing the answer to the question.

"Yes."

"Give me a bit to get ready," she sighed out.

"You have ten minutes," Aoba told her. "If you're not done by then, I'm dragging you out in whatever state you're in. We need to be there on time."

"What if I'm naked?"

"Well, I'm sure you'll learn a valuable lesson."

"And you'll probably be arrested," she shot back over her shoulder. "And when that happens I won't have to go to the stupid exam. _Justice_ ," she hissed gleefully. Aoba snorted, she wasn't _wrong_ about that.

"Get ready," he barked instead.

Tempted to take longer than ten minutes just to see if Aoba really would drag her out, she got ready, not taking the full time. She reentered the front room and pulled a book off the shelf. Ai caught Aoba shaking his head.

"Are you really bringing a book?"

"Yes," Ai answered, her tone saying he was the stupidest person she knew for asking. "Watching children duke it out doesn't really do it for me."

Aoba shook his head, grabbing her sword from where it hung and tossed it too her. "Take that with you, but make sure it isn't seen."

"Are you trying to get me in trouble?"

"No, keeping it hidden is for the civilian's sakes. If you are seen with it by a shinobi, you're with me, no one will question you. Plus, a ninja should always be prepared."

"That's boy scouts, and I'm neither of those." Aoba's brow crumpled in confusion, but he decided to ignore her oddity.

"Bring it anyway."

"Is something going to happen that I should be aware of?" Ai questioned as she strapped the sword to her belt. She preferred it on her back, but there she could adjust it out of the way when she sat.

"Yes," he replied. "Or at least there is a chance. You may not be a ninja, but you are capable of defending yourself. It never hurts to have another able body around."

"I suppose…" she said hesitantly, pushing chakra through her hand to activate the seals on the blade. Ai signaled Abel to follow along, even though he probably would have on his own.

Aoba escorted her out of her house an onto the streets of Konoha. They were packed with people, a lot of them heading the same direction. Unlike them, Aoba walked at a faster pace, weaving between the other pedestrians and forcing Ai to keep up.

Not that it was hard, just unpleasant.

Abel, as usual, kept himself up on the rooftops out of sight.

Even with them walking at a quicker pace than everyone around them, the stadium was still decently full upon their arrival. Aoba stepped to the side and spoke in quiet tones with one of the door guards for a moment before he waved his hand at her to join him in passing through.

The two claimed spots in the far-left building from the VIP seating area in the center. Ai even caught a glimpse of Asuma and Kurenai sitting together on the way in. The first of whom gave a nod of greeting to Aoba.

Without care for anyone else's opinion, Ai tossed her legs onto the back of the bench in front of her and began reading. Meanwhile, the stadium seats continued to steadily fill and a few of the contestants filtered into the arena below, where the new proctor was already standing. A few people that passed into the seats lower than them gave her feet disgusted looks and it wasn't until their area started getting truly full, that Aoba kicked her feet off the top of the bench in front of her. She gave him a sour look, but didn't put her feet back up. The seats in front of them were soon claimed once her shoes were no longer near the spot.

She sighed, going back to her book and trying to ignore the growing din. The people grew more and more excited as the time of the final round to begin approached.

It wasn't until there was a shout from the arena and the crowd let out loud cheering 'ooooh," that Ai looked up. Being helped up from the ground and covered in dirt was Naruto Uzumaki. Aoba let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "That kid is more trouble than he's worth," the ninja beside her muttered.

"All you ninja are," she replied to his statement.

"I'm surprised you haven't made the list then, Miss-Nothing-But." She made a face at him at those words. He knew exactly why she wasn't a ninja – having finally read her file – and she resented being called trouble. "You keep making those and your face is gonna get stuck that way." Ai snorted and didn't dignify that with a reply.

A couple minutes later, the Hokage's voice echoed through the stadium, welcoming them all and asking that no one leave until the end. The crowd broke out cheering again.

She shifted uncomfortably at his final words though. It wasn't like they were in a theatre, did this have to do with all that Orochimaru and Kabuto stuff? Was that why she was here, at the stadium? She had noticed that Sasuke wasn't down in the field. Along with the fact that you would literally have to be blind to _not_ notice the Anbu in cloaks dotting the stadium seats, with their creepy masks.

There was a gentle nudge against her foot. "Stop fidgeting," Aoba said quietly, "and calm down. There's nothing you need to panic over."

While he probably hadn't needed to speak quietly, all attention was down below where a fight – and a load of screaming – was occurring, Ai still appreciated the act of trying to maintain privacy. She let out a shaky breath and nodded, returning to her book.

She didn't reemerge until the crowd went quiet as Naruto got the stuffing beat out of him in an extraordinary display of chakra strikes. She couldn't deny that Neji was talented.

The orange-clad boy unsteadily pushed himself back up. Scuffed and scratched up. Their back-and-forth exchange was amplified – probably by seals – for the audience to hear.

Ai listened, dismayed as Neji spoke. "Fine," he spat viciously, "since you're _so interested_ , I'll tell you about the Hyuga Clan's heritage of hatred! For generations, the main household of our clan has practiced a secret ninjutsu. The Curse Mark Jutsu! The Mark is a symbol of a bird, locked in its cage. It's the mark of those who are bound to a destiny they cannot escape."

 _Gilded bars, broken wings. Some birds never fly._

Ai felt sorrow well in her as those words replayed in her mind, finally making sense.

"That's horrible," Ai whispered, appalled as Neji continued his tale. Speaking of the incident with the Land of Lightning and the death of his father. His tale, however, was one in the long train of ninja with terrible childhoods. She was beginning to think if she could find a ninja that had a good one, she stood a pretty good chance at finding a unicorn too.

Even after Neji knocked him to the ground once more, easily as hard as when he'd first done it, Naruto got back up and began pulling on his chakra. Ai blinked, and Neji called him out on it as well. However, to their surprise, and probably everyone else's in the stadium, it seemed to work.

It was only the ninja, or those trained, that could sense the chakra he was pulling on. Ai could feel it, vicious and angry. A dark pressure permeating the arena, whipping dirt and other debris into the air.

The pair clashed again, before their combined chakras hit with such force it repelled the two combatants from each other. Neji stood first from that encounter, but in only a few moments, he was back on the ground after a surprise attack from below, delivered by Naruto when he erupted from the earth.

Once the match was called in Naruto's favor, the crowd broke into cheers and applause.

When the medical team appeared to take Neji from the field, Naruto was finally corralled back to the entrance of the arena. Ending his sprinting around the field, basking in the loud approval of the crowd.

"Well," Aoba said, lounging back and looking for all the world like he was sitting on the most comfortable bench in existence. "That was an impressive fight."

"Was it?" Ai asked.

"You'll understand when you're older," he said half-mysteriously, half-like a moron. He received another disgusted face from Ai.

"That doesn't make any sense." He smirked and went for a hair ruffle. Which she managed to dodge, only to bump into the person beside her.

"Hey," he snapped irritably.

The glare Ai sent his way stopped the civilian from saying anything further about her accidental jolting. The slight paling of his skin and him scooting closer to the person on his left said he might recognize her too.

Aoba only chuckled under his breath.

Things grew boring, though no less quiet as everyone had to wait for the next match. Ai returned to her book to keep herself occupied. Reading, she asked, "Isn't this the part where Sasuke is disqualified for not showing up?"

"Normally, yes," the Aoba agreed. "The wait, however, says that that might not be the case." The ninja's words are proven correct when a few minutes later another ninja poofed onto the field to speak with the proctor, vanishing after he delivered his message.

"The current match is being postponed due to one of the contestants having not arrived. However, we shall continue onto the battle that would have followed this one." The news was met with a mix of cheering and booing. The booing grew much louder when Kankuro withdrew, giving the win to Shino.

The crowd broke out into cries of outrage at that turn.

Ai may not have known Kankuro well, but the sense she got of him during their few interactions said that what he did wasn't a very Kankuro thing to do.

His sister, however, was more than willing to give a show, and soared down into the pitch on her fan. Shikamaru's entrance a full minute later was less graceful.

One the crowd didn't appreciate either, if the trash and nasty words they threw at him was anything to go by.

Their fight turned into game of cat and mouse with Temari creating billowing gusts of wind that reached even into the stadium and Shikamaru forcing her to dance away with his shadow possession.

She would admit this to no one but herself, but Ai found watching the shadows Shikamaru controlled to be fascinating. Seeing the dark streak darting to and fro across the ground keeping Temari on her toes. It was impressive coming from him, Ai couldn't say Shikamaru was an intimidating opponent, but then again, she'd seen his father in the hallways of the administrative building.

Truthfully, she didn't think Ibiki had _anything_ on Shikaku Nara.

"He's maneuvering her," Ai murmured, noticing that Shikamaru's shadow kept directing and redirecting Temari, through progressively more creative means, to between the two holes Naruto had created the previous match.

"So, you noticed," she heard Aoba say.

She could practically feel the audience on the edge of their seats when he finally managed to snag her with his shadow. The tension growing thicker with each step the two fighters took towards the center. Shikamaru raised his arm.

Then he quit.

The crowd roared their disapproval and Ai laughed. She turned to Aoba, speaking over the objecting watchers. "I think I like him."

Aoba laughed. "Why's that?"

"He knows when to… ah… strategically retreat." Aoba cocked his head, asking her to explain further. "From that match, and knowing what I do about that jutsu, it seems better at catching opponents, what could he have done after that?"

"There are things," Aoba stated, small smirk on his face. "Can't say I know him, but knowing his father, I'm sure Shikamaru had something planned." His grin widened. "You should see Shikaku Nara in action."

Ai grimaced. "That sounds like something I don't _want_ to see."

"At least not on the wrong side of, anyway," her companion agreed.

A blur of orange shot into the field coming to a stop by the stretching Shikamaru. Even without the amplification seals currently active, she could hear him chewing out the Nara.

Notwithstanding the earlier upset, the crowd soon grew excited for the next match. They greatly anticipated Sasuke Uchiha's battle.

The excitement soon became discontent once more as the people were forced to wait once more. Which then became near mutinous as they were forced to wait even longer with no word on the match.

"You're gonna have a riot on your hands soon," Ai told the ninja beside her. Leaning back and putting her feet flat against the back of the bench in front of her. She opened the book on her lap.

Aoba sighed. "It is getting pretty tetchy around here, huh?" Once more the same ninja appeared to deliver a message into the proctor's ear. "Probably extending the time we get to wait," he commented.

Ai snorted. "This is why he's got such a high opinion of himself. Everyone bends over backwards and breaks their backs for him." She caught a few sharp looks sent her way.

"Careful where you say that." Aoba leaned in. "You might get lynched."

"I'd like to see them try. It'll be good entertainment while I'm forced to wait here."

The wait turned into at least another ten minutes. Ten minutes of tense, furious spectators clamoring for Uchiha to show up. Someone event started a chant.

In the end, Sasuke did show up, in a flurry of leaves created by Kakashi as he body flickered them into the battle grounds.

"Like he's the emperor of the universe," she muttered.

The fight took a few more minutes to start as Shikamaru ushered Naruto off the field and as they waited for Gaara to arrive from the contestant's box.

The proctor called a start to the fight and sand billowed out of the gourd on Gaara's back. There was a brief spat with a sand clone before Sasuke finished it off and charged Gaara. A barrier of sand surged up between them, but in a flash of speed, Sasuke vanished.

It was the same move he'd used on her to get past Abel, but this time, Ai was sure it was faster.

The young ninja appeared behind his target, who turned and received a fist in the face for his trouble. Sasuke then proved that he was for sure faster as he unleashed an impressive bout of speed and an equally impressive display of taijutsu on his opponent.

Gaara apparently decided things weren't going well for him because he formed a ball of sand sound himself, creating an impenetrable defense. Which Sasuke tried to beat, barely missing the sharps spikes that shot from the sand dome. Testing it a few times only produced the same result.

The dark-clad boy dodged backwards, going up the wall of the arena to gain distance from the Sand ninja. A shrill, ear-splitting screeching emitted from his hand as it emanated a blue, crackling light.

"The Chidori," she heard Aoba say, slight wonder in his tone. "So, that's what he was teaching the kid."

Sasuke shot down the wall, hurtling at break-neck speeds towards the sand sphere. His hand plunged into the barrier, sinking up to the elbow. An ungodly scream, that in no way came from the dark-haired boy, split the air.

"Blood! It's my blood!"

Sasuke tugged and pulled at his arm, trying to release it from the sand. He was forced to use another Chidori to pull himself free. Both she and Aoba sat up straighter as with Sasuke's arm came a… sandy claw?

It slowly wriggled and writhed backwards into the hole, disappearing.

A similar, but different, dark pressure began to fill the air of the stadium, causing a number of ninja to sit up as well.

The sand dome cracked, loosening and spilling the sand from around Gaara. The young red-head, clutched at his left shoulder. His shoulders rose and fell from his heavy pants.

All was silent as the crowd waited with baited breath for the next move.

Something tickled the back of Ai's neck and she looked up, watching as white feathers drifted down from nowhere.

A wave of exhaustion washed over her, gently calling her to sleep.

* * *

There may be a few spelling/grammatical errors in the last bit... I got excited/typed fast/wanted to finish it. Ask questions if you have any!

Credits:

 _Poison & Wine_ – The Civil Wars

 _Falling Inside the Black_ – Skillet

 _Radioactive_ – Imagine Dragons

 _Everglow_ \- Coldplay


	8. It's Our World, They Can Never Have It

Happy Holidays! As my gift to all ya'll, another chapter, I hope you enjoy it. It took me a little while with school ending and getting busier (and my health acting up again), but now things should be better! Little bit shorter than my previous few, but I wanted to get this out to you all who have waited so patiently.

Also, to everyone that read the previous chapter before I changed the AN, you can find my picture of Ai and Abel with a google search of Rykaspar to bring up my deviantart page. (Since links are garbage here). Or does this work after removing the spaces? rykaspar. deviantart. com

* * *

Silver Streams

It's Our World, They Can Never Have It

※

 _Ai blinks back into the real world. She was so cold, but now, now she's almost unbearably warm, swaddled in so many blankets it's nearly laughable. At least it might be, if she knew where she was and her last memories weren't of someone stuffing a cloth over her face and the biting cold chewing its way into her bones._

 _The little girl begins to struggle, trying to get out of the cloth that is now feeling too restrictive._

 _"Slow down," a voice says softly. "You had a pretty bad turn there, you need to stay calm and rest." Ai looks over to the speaker, he's young, dressed in navy blue and an olive-green vest, he has scruffy brown hair and dark eyes. Most notably, he looks tired._

Strong breeze, guiding the leaf. Fanning the flame. Solitary oak. Tall. Strong.

 _"_ And concerned _," she supposed, rubbing her ear on her shoulder._

 _Blinking at him, she asked, "Where am I?" Her voice sounded surprisingly worn out._

 _The young man gave a small shrug. "Some border inn that I don't know the name of. It was the first place I found and you needed immediate attention." He studied her, head titled a little to the side. "What's your name?"_

 _"Ai," she replied softly, shifting her arms about enough to grab the blankets and tug them tighter to her chin._

 _"That's a nice name, I like it," the man smiled gently. "I'm Hayate. Can you tell me where you are from, Ai? Do you know what your town is called? I'd like to get you back, if I can."_

 _She chewed on her lip. "The place I'm originally from didn't have a name, just a couple of connected buildings. But when we got here they took us to Ku- Kumogakure," she stumbled a little over the word, still unused to it. Hayate leant back in the chair he'd been sitting in._

 _"I see." His brow furrowed. "Do you remember what happened? How you got out in the snow?"_

 _"It was night, and I was sleeping at Yugito's home. She was away. I heard a noise and then someone shoved a cloth into my face," Ai began to sniffle. "The next thing I remember is waking up in the cold. I was outside in the snow, but no one was around anywhere. I got so tired."_

 _He nodded. "I found you out there. Half frozen. I thought it best to get you somewhere safe and warm."_

 _"Can you get me back to Yugito?" The young man, Hayate, gave her a sad smile._

 _"I don't think I can. I'm sorry. You see, Cloud doesn't like me or my people very much."_

 _"Oh," Ai looked away from him. "I don't think they liked me much either. They were worried I'd get them sick."_

 _That seemed to interest him. "Sick? How?"_

 _"They said there was something wrong with my chakra coils. That," Ai bit her lip, recalling the what she'd heard as she'd come out of anesthesia, "that, 'Natural Chakra seems to be concentrating in them in unusually high amounts. It's appears that is the reason behind the deterioration, and loss, of their equipment. Even the metal items we removed from inside the girl weren't spared. The nonorganic objects have been destroyed quicker, but we believe they will die soon as well. It won't be a quick death for any of them."'_

 _Hayate raised a brow. "That was pretty impressive. Did they tell you all that?"_

 _Ai shook her head. "They thought I was still asleep. I heard the doctor talking to someone, I don't know who."_

 _"They were obviously wrong about what was going to happen though."_

 _At those words, Ai saddened. "Just about me, Naoki and the others still died. They put me out on the streets after I got better, but no one would come near or help me. Even if I wasn't contagious, everyone acted like I still was. Yugito and B would talk to me, and they never got sick."_

 _"B?" His eyes almost blinked. "To clarify something, do you mean Killer B? And Yugito Nii?"_

 _Ai perked up. "Do you know them?"_

 _Hayate smiled at that. "Not personally. They're, um, famous."_

 _"Really?" Hayate nodded. "Is it because B liked to sing?"_

 _At that Hayate laughed. "No, but I have heard that. They're both very talented fighters. My people keep track of that."_

 _"Oh." She said, before that seemed to click. "B was teaching me to hold a sword! He said I showed potential." The girl practically preened._

 _"Was he? Did Yugito teach you anything?"_

 _At that Ai wormed her arms and upper body out of the blankets. Hayate let her this time, watching as she cupped her hands together. Light began to shine through the gaps of her fingers. She pulled her hands away, letting the light float in front of her. "She also gave me my name!"_

 _"Your name?"_

 _Ai nodded. "I didn't have one before I met her. Only numbers."_

 _"Numbers…?"_

 _She nodded again. "The adults had names, but the children only had numbers."_

 _"I see," Hayate said slowly, turning what she said over in his mind. "Ai, I can't get you back to Yugito, but, would you be willing to come with me? Back to my home? I promise you'll be well cared for there."_

 _She chewed on her lip again, considering his offer. "Can I learn how to use a sword there too?"_

 _Hayate smiled and nodded. "You're in luck." He pointed over to the wall. Not far from his foot, a sword leaned, glaringly obvious against the flowery wallpaper. Ai brightened._

 _"All right."_

 _"It's agreed on then. As soon as you're strong enough, we'll go to Konoha."_

 _Something sparks to life inside her and cawing birds fly across her vision._

Ai's eyes snapped open, feeling for all the world, she had just blinked for a very long time. She wasn't sure how much time has passed, but the feathers still drifted about her. Now, though, they floated a foot away, as if they were blocked by an invisible barrier.

It doesn't take her long to realize there was a pressure on her shoulder, looking over revealed it to be Aoba's hand. His chakra, warmly blending itself with hers.

"You good?"

"Yeah." Ai stood and Aoba released her shoulder. She dropped her hand to the hilt of her hidden Tsukikage.

Dotted about their section of the stadium were other ninja that had fought off the genjutsu, included among them were Kurenai and Asuma.

Only moments after recognizing them, all hell broke loose.

Dozens of Sound ninja, who had been hiding in the crowd disguised as civilians began their assault.

※※※※※

Kankuro had just settled Gaara's arm around his shoulder – and God, please, he hoped he didn't get murdered – when a movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention.

A form, small from this distance, tumbled over the edge of the stadium. The flash of gold hair, told him who it probably was. Her arm latched onto the vertical support of the railing to keep her from completing her descent. Fire gushed out of the seating area above her.

He watched as her chakra-coated feet slipped on the wall of the arena, before adhering once more.

Guilt washed over him as he watched the pathetically half-trained civilian that interacted too much with ninja, nearly fall.

Two grey and purpled-clothed ninja appeared above her. Sound ninja, obviously. One hung off the railing, grabbing at her. " _What the hell are they doing?_ " he thought, watching. Other than down, she had no way to get away.

He heard a shout and something silver dropped from above landing on the reaching ninja.

Metal and gleaming bright in the sun, a large cat-shaped skeleton dropped onto the Sound ninja's back. Claws biting deep. Transfixed, he stared as the mouth of the cat latched onto his shoulder.

Red sprayed everywhere. Spattering across the wall of the arena, flinging up high into the air.

The cat removed its mouth, without having to reopen it and with a harsh push of its back legs, it both climbed onto the top of the railing and sent the now armless ninja to the dirt, dozens of feet below.

The second Sound ninja followed the first as a dark-haired kunoichi flung him over the edge, completely unopposed.

Blue and green slid to the ground, grabbing onto her arm hooked around the railing post and reaching down to haul Ai back into the stadium seating as the other Leaf ninja disappeared back into the fray, letting the gore-splattered cat guard the two.

It made a blood-curdling shriek as another Sound ninja made a move on the pair, only to find himself encased in the metal cat. He didn't see what happened as they tumbled further into the building, but he did hear a scream cut short.

As the cat lunged, the ninja helping Ai managed to grab onto the back of her shirt and was in the process of hauling her up when another Sound ninja appeared.

Half-way up, and in a better position to defend them both, Ai threw her left arm up at the attacking ninja. Five metal spears surged out of her sleeve, punching holes through the man, and kept on going. The heads of the spears curled inwards, facing the body it had just perforated, and coming together, reforming into a large skeletal snake. The tails finished joining after having passed fully through the enemy ninja.

Ai moved her hand to the side and the snake shot off to find a new victim.

He recalled seeing her use chakra strings to gather papers after she fell. It was a simple trick if you possessed the talent, but he hadn't realized she was skilled in puppetry as well.

The Leaf ninja finished hauling her back up and she disappeared into the building above.

"Kankuro!" His name being shouted brought his attention back to Baki. "Get Gaara out of here! Now!" He nodded before darting off, his sister following closely. After they cleared the wall, Temari spoke up.

"What got you so distracted?" she asked, tone slightly accusatory.

"Nothing," he snapped at her a bit harsher than he meant, he took a firmer grip on Gaara and sped up. He knew his sister wasn't convinced, but they had bigger things to worry about, and now wasn't a good time to start up a row.

※※※※※

After her harrowing near-fall to her death, Ai made sure to keep either a Leaf ninja, Abel, or Seth between her and any enemy. It wasn't too hard of a task to accomplish, Abel already wanted to defend her and Seth just wanted to kill Sound ninja. However, after they had attempted to grab her, Aoba, while still full-out fighting, seemed to be orbiting around her. He'd dart off, but he'd be back in her sight soon after disappearing. Despite that, there were a few Sound ninja that still attempted to break past, only to be permanently stopped by one, or a combination of, the three.

It was fast, dirty, and soon a lull fell over the stadium as the initial numbers dwindled and the remaining became more cautious. The leaf ninja formed loose groups to best protect and defend each other, the sleeping civilians, and the few sleeping Leaf-nin caught in the jutsu.

The immediate sounds of groans from the injured were drowned out by an echoing bang, a pillar of smoke billowed up outside the wall of the stadium. The noise heralded the second wave of enemies, they swooped in, renewing the battle. Now, however, the grey and purple was interspersed with shades of brown. Their headbands indicated them to be Sand shinobi. They at least didn't seem interested in kidnapping.

That didn't stop them from trying to kill, harm, or maim her however.

One Sand ninja made the mistake of getting too close to her, probably comparing her to their own puppet users. Though, she did play the part, twitching and drumming the fingers of her left hand in time to _Night on Bald Mountain_. Between that and her two metal companions, it was enough to make her look like she was one.

She understood the premise of puppetry and, sure, she used chakra strings. They were useful for sleight of hand tricks and when you felt just too lazy to get up to grab something on the other side of the room. Of course, you ran the risk of having that object crash into your face, but despite the hazard, it was a handy skill. However, she was sure she'd have no talent for actual puppetry jutsu, unless hurling the puppet at the enemy counted towards the mastery of the jutsu.

The sand ninja that made it through the gauntlet, with the aid of a few of his comrades, was undoubtedly surprised when he got close to her and found something sliding into his gut.

Moon Shadow, shimmering near invisibly and hilt held firmly in her right hand, slipped smoothly in one side and out the other. The ninja faltered as the blade pierced him, coming to a halt. A moment later Abel was on the man's back. She pulled away from the pair, taking her blood slicked sword with her and let Abel finish the job.

Ai was wiping the blood of the Sand ninja off her blade and onto her pants leg when Seth let out a rattling hiss, calling her attention to him. She looked up to him and noticed he was staring out at the other section of stadium seating. Following his line of sight, Ai spotted a black robed figure, back against the guard railing. Seth picked up on his humming hiss, vibrating his whole body. Silver hair, glasses and a smug, smarmy grin entered her mind.

A chill washed over her and rage welled up. Her vision began to tunnel on the figure.

Kabuto.

It was Kabuto over there.

Seth's vibrations became more violent and with them Ai could practically taste how good it would feel to see him bleeding. Her chakra coiled tight, burning white-hot in her stomach as it prepared itself for a strike. Tsukikage hummed in her grip. She had to get over there.

Little else was on her mind as she turned and darted to the back of the seating area, headed for the hallway connecting the buildings. She barely heard Aoba call her name, crying out for her to stop.

 _And a swelling Rage. Rage._

She ran through the halls, which, gratefully, the fighting had remained largely out of so the way was mostly hazard free.

Mostly because apparently a Sound ninja thought following after her was a good idea. Which she didn't know until she felt someone grab her from behind. Sadly, for him, Seth had followed them both. Ai felt metal brush her back as Seth closed his vice-like jaws over her assailant's back. He gurgled as Seth's foot long fangs bit deep, the sound indicating the high probability that a lung had been pierced. Ai didn't hang around to wait, the moment the enemy's grip loosened she broke out and continued sprinting through the hallway. She could hear the cracking of bone following her as Seth unrelentingly closed his jaws around the Sound ninja's chest.

Ai passed by the doorway that would have led her to the VIP seating area, not slowing until she reached the further entrance to the eastern viewing building. She paused long enough to regain her breath before carefully entering. The fighting here wasn't any less than in the western building.

There was, however, an Anbu member down front flanked by four Sound-nin.

Her whole body shook and shivered uncontrollably as she stared at him. Ai had never felt such strong hatred before, but this world just kept taking and taking and taking. It wasn't fair and she was so _sick_ of it. She just wanted to see someone _hurt_ as much as she was.

Pressure was pushing on her head, pressing on her ears, pinching into her brain.

Whispered words, hissing long and continuously. A completely nonsensical jumble she couldn't understand.

And that _stupid_ voice wouldn't ever _shut up_.

Ai could feel her chakra pushing out. Roiling and twisting, pressing burning molten hot on the inside of her skin.

The masked face turned towards her. The black holes for eyes meeting hers.

The entire atmosphere of the seating area turned to frozen glass.

"Hello Ai."

Her chakra erupted, breaking her tenuous control.

※※※※※

A groan echoed over the stadium and the tiled roof beneath their feet vibrated.

"Aaaaah," Orochimaru sighed out, "that must be Ai." The Third's eyes widened.

"So, you're after her as well."

"She has much potential." His grin was feral. "But you were always so worried that she was a Cloud spy, that you didn't bother gaining her allegiance. It works out better for me this way," he chuckled.

"Is she one of your experiments after all?"

Orochimaru laughed darkly. "Oh yes. I didn't do the work myself, sadly, which may be part of why she seems so unstable, but I'm sure I can fix that. Given time. She is quite special though, you see I found a place whose technology far outstrips ours. Unfortunately, it doesn't possess chakra in the same way as ours does, leaving me unable to attend to the details of the experiments myself.

"The people there, though, were more than willing to listen to me. I would give them many means to defeat their enemies and in payment, they were to give me theirs. Ai carries that wonderful edification in her mind. Their knowledge was installed into her and the other children like a computer. They were to exchange her and the others for my wisdom." Orochimaru's face turned sour and he scowled unpleasantly.

"Something must have spooked them, they changed their minds and I barely caught wind of their plan to destroy their creations. I attempted to summon them to me and when none came through I realized I had been too late. What I hadn't known, however, was that there had been others with her, with Ai, it threw off the summons, dropping them in the Land of Lightning.

"Even worse, I learned later that the natural energy of the world opposed them. Destroying those that passed through. Eating away their bodies and the technology that had come with them in a matter of days. I never expected that one had survived, let alone that I would find her in _this_ village of all places." Orochimaru chuckled again, his voice gaining passion as he spoke. "Then, to make it all the sweeter, this world has seen fit to grant such _powers_. Powers so _rare_ , so _delectable_. To think the Cloud Village didn't even realize what they threw to the wayside and in only a few short hours she will be mine. Along with all that has survived within her."

Orochimaru's eyes shone maniacally as he imagined the power he could gain from her. So many delightful gifts all wrapped up in one neat package.

Hiruzen Sarutobi straightened his back. "You are correct. I feared she was another plot by the Cloud Village and I let that foolishly blind me to her for a long time, but you are _wrong_ about one thing." His old student narrowed his eyes at him. "She will _never_ side with you. I may not have her loyalty, but there are others in this village who have worked hard to gain her trust and acceptance. And it is _you_ who is responsible for her brother's death. She knows this, and Ai Gekko will never side with you simply because it was from _your_ orders that she lost what she loved most."

The smile he received held far too many teeth to be friendly. "I'd say 'We'll see about that,' but you won't be around to see it!"

※※※※※

"Now, now," Kabuto held up his hands, looking around as the stadium shook, the pillars, the seats, the walls, and rails, blurred just slightly around the edges. "There's no need to be upset. Not with _me_ , anyway."

Ai felt the muscles in her body clench painfully, she took a deep, shaky breath to help them relax. It was released just as unsteadily. Tsukikage, which had been near singing as it vibrated, quieted. Everything around her calmed as she continued to breathe.

She couldn't lose control.

A hush fell over the stadium as it stopped humming and shaking.

The mask face turned back to her and Ai had to breathe carefully once more as a wave of nausea washed over and through her body. Another presence appeared behind her, joining with the other Leaf ninja nearby.

"That was… quite impressive." Kabuto's voice was only minimally muffled behind the porcelain. Despite the clarity, he slowly moved his hand to his face, grabbing the mask, and just as slowly removed it. The whole time his dark eyes never left her glacial blue ones. "I look forward to seeing that potential blossom." Ai didn't respond. Not because she didn't have a few nasty things to say to him, but because she was afraid that once she opened her mouth she wouldn't be able to stop what might come out. Kabuto didn't seem bothered by her silence. "Things don't have to be this way between us, Ai. I know we didn't get started off on the right foot, but this whole time, I've wanted to _help_ you. You have such _talent_. This village will destroy you to get at it, and when it has what it wants, it will throw rest of you away." Ai felt her jaw clench. She hated him.

But… he was probably right. Those blank white masks flashed in her mind. Her eyes drifted away from Kabuto's.

If only…

"You don't have to be scared, Ai. Your life deserves to be your own. Come with me, you'll be safe _and_ free."

Heat burned its way up her throat. "Safe?" she ground out bitterly, shaking her head. "Free?" She looked back up, meeting his eyes. She could feel them, drawing nearer. "Nowhere is safe. And freedom won't be found with _you_."

"You know that isn't the case. I've seen what you can do. I respect that and I've only wanted your respect in return –"

"No!" she barked, cutting him off. "You _demanded_ my attention. Clamoring for it like a petulant child! Well, now you have it. _All_ of it." Kabuto seemed to understand what that statement could entail. He dodged to the side, grabbing one of the Sound ninja by him and twisting their positions about. " _Staring at the ceiling in the dark. Same old empty feeling in your heart._ " Abel, who had just shot up over the edge of the railing, closed his mouth on the masked Sound-nin that Kabuto had put in his place. Spinning jaw-blades didn't even leave him enough time to scream.

Hell broke its chains as other Sound ninja engaged the Leaf ninja once again.

" _Love comes slow and it goes so fast_."

With an impressive sense for danger, Kabuto then dodged Seth, who flew past the traitor and lodged himself into another Sound ninja. He slowed, coming to a stop a number of feet from the pair of silver skeletons. He turned face to Ai.

" _You see her when you fall asleep, but never to touch and never to keep._ " Ai met his eyes. She could feel his welling rage at her. A kind smiling face of a woman flashed in her mind. Then it was dead and covered in blood. " _'Cause_ _you loved her too much and you dive too deep. Maybe one day, you'll understand why everything you touch surely dies._ "

Shaking, and with a shout, Kabuto ran at her, his hand igniting with a blue glow. He only had one more step to go to strike her, when he jerked to a stop, hand raised in the air, shaking. She continued to stare into his eyes.

" _And we run, with a lonely heart. And we run, for this killing love._ "

Kabuto took a few deep breaths. His hand stopped shaking.

"You almost had me. I'm impressed, Ai."

She grimaced and let her left hand relax. The small hole Tsukikage's tip had made in Kabuto's robe widened as the blade dropped, having only done damage to the fabric.

"You would die to see me dead?" He asked her, backing off and lowering his own hand.

"Yes," Ai answered. "What do I have left?"

"I understand Ai, I do. It's obvious that you know that, just as you know that you're in danger in this village. Orochimaru offers your asylum with him."

"Asylum," she murmured, eyes drifted down to the concreate steps.

"Sanctuary. Protection." He reiterated.

She looked back up at him. "I _know_ what asylum means." He gave her a small shrug, spreading his hands. She could feel the Leaf shinobi behind her. The quick and brutal fight had taken only moments. Their presence was heavy, weighted, and judging as they obviously awaited her reply.

"He wants to _help_ you, Ai," Kabuto's voice gentled, taking on a calming tone. "Stop all those voices in your head. He can make it better for you. All you need to do is come with me."

She remembered what Kakashi had told her, Orochimaru would keep her as an experiment. Ai could feel a phantom pinching at the nape of her neck, her hand twitched, wanting to rub at it. Eight. It was always eight.

She'd already had enough experimentation in her life already.

Heat climbed up her throat. Pressure built in her head again. Turning into static white noise.

"You can take my heart." Kabuto's stance relaxed.

"Ai," Aoba pleaded behind her.

"You can take my breath." Kabuto stepped forward, but paused at her next words. "When you pry it from my cold, dead chest!" Her voice rose in volume ending in a shout. The traitor across the way clenched his fists and fully straightened his spine.

"This is the only time I will offer you a chance to change your mind. Come with me, Ai. I can tell you who really killed Haya–"

"Don't you dare speak his name!" she screeched, rage rising up. She rushed at him, flipping Tsukikage before her, into her right, and more dominant, hand. The blade shimmered iridescently at the excess of chakra running through it.

There was a shout behind her.

※※※※※

"Ai, stop!" Aoba yelled. She'd fallen hook, line, and sinker for her own trick. Get the target to rush in blindly, preferably while angry, and get themselves brutally killed. Or in her case, kidnapped. He could feel the cold calculation radiating off Kabuto.

Aoba could also see the change in the traitor's stance and feel the preparation of his chakra for a blow. Knowing what he did about the slime ball, he was sure it was meant to incapacitate.

He couldn't let her do it. He shot forward.

Overtaking Ai was a joke. He grabbed her wrist, the one holding her sword aloft and thrust his other arm before her chest, pulling her right arm across his. The moment his hand came in contact with the skin of her wrist he felt her rage – screaming, fire and fury, burning molten chakra – and knew immediately what Ibiki had been talking about in the Hokage's office.

Something disconnected. Split and slid out of place. He felt the chakra turn to him. _Rage. Rage._

Aoba did the first thing that came to his mind.

Before the chakra could get to him, he dove past her fury. Reaching out for the second strongest emotion he could feel within her.

Her sadness.

He grabbed it and pulled it forward. Past the anger, making _it_ the strongest emotion.

The chakra froze. Then pulled back, spiraling away.

Aoba pulled himself out of her mind.

Ai had tears running down her face.

The sword slipped from loose fingers. The clatter it made as it hit the ground was deafening in the quiet.

Kabuto made a disgusted sound, hopping back, feet landing on the railing.

Releasing Ai, Aoba slid in front of her.

"Do you honestly think she's worth your effort?" The ash-haired boy asked. "You're wasting your time, one way or another, she _will_ be leaving this village."

" _You're_ the one wasting their time," he retorted. "She isn't going _anywhere_."

Kabuto's face twisted into an ugly sneer and his hands twitched, chakra flooding the appendages. He opened his mouth to say something, but a blood-splattered cat lunged at him, forcing Kabuto away. Seth entered the fray, forcing the traitor to dodge back over the edge, where he vanished. Aoba could hear the echoing clatter of the two from below, which dimmed as Abel returned. The cat's whole body shivered as he circled the pair.

Aoba turned around, placing his hands on Ai's shoulders. He almost said something trite, like 'It'll be okay,' but he managed to hold his tongue. It wouldn't be okay and he didn't want to lie to the girl. He already felt guilty for forcing her loss of Hayate back into the forefront. The tears still slid silently down her cheeks. She almost seemed lost.

With a soft sigh, he lent down and picked up her sword, which had reappeared as her chakra dissipated from it. He almost lunged to catch Ai as she suddenly dropped to sit on the stairs. He looked away, giving her some small privacy.

Glancing around, he watched Guy mop up the remaining enemies that continued to fight. The battle seemed to be mostly winding down. At least in their area.

Abel's metal claws clacked on the concreate as the cat paced around, his blood covered head swiveling in search for any opponents. Or maybe for anything he felt like sinking his teeth into, hell if he knew.

Kakashi and Guy flashed by, both dropping over the edge of the railing. Aoba could still hear the ruckus that was Seth down below. At least he assumed it was Seth, he was pretty sure no one else sounded like pots and pans tumbling down stairs when they fought.

A displacement of air heralded Kurenai's arrival. She met his eyes, asking without words if he was good. Aoba nodded in response, but glanced down in the same movement to Ai. She'd put her face in her knees so he couldn't if she was still crying, but with how he pulled her emotions, it wouldn't surprise him. He scratched the back of his head. Comforting teenage girls is _not_ his strongest skill. Far from being on the list, in fact. Kurenai responded to his plea by crouching down and rubbing Ai's back.

The sound of the barrier on top of the Kage viewing box breaking caught his attention. Two groups of shadows darted away, a brief exchange of jutsu has the Anbu pursuit falling back. He glanced back to Kurenai, her eyes tell him that she'll stay with Ai if he wants to go check on the Hokage. Which he does, he very much does, but Ai is _his_ responsibility and barring a change in the Hokage's orders, will continue to be his. Instead, he waits with the two women, watching as shadows flicker past and up to check on their leader.

It doesn't take long for the news to make it down to him.

The Third Hokage is dead.

But at least he managed to repel Orochimaru.

Ninja begin to come and go, medics carting the injured away and others reporting for sections of the village most likely. Across the seating box, Aoba spots Kakashi being, what can only be described as, frantically spoken to by an Anbu. Aoba isn't close enough to hear and he doesn't care mostly, he just wants the all clear to be given so he can take Ai back to her place and hopefully _not_ get ambushed on the way there.

Sure, they had been told to expect something during the final exam, but this whole thing had turned into one giant clus–

His train of thought cut off as his hindbrain alerted him to the fact that he was being watched. Aoba feigned a stretch – though it feels _unbelievably_ good – to afford himself a look around. He sights the perpetrators as three Anbu on top of the VIP building.

The nice thing about sunglasses is they hide direct line of sight, and not turning his face to directly stare at them means they can't tell he's spotted them. The three are gathered together and occasionally send not-surreptitious-enough glances their way. Tucking his hands into his pockets, he leisurely takes a few steps to put himself between their sight and Ai. Kurenai meets his eyes. She's out of their view as well.

"They've been looking for the last few minutes," she reported quietly. Kurenai had a better position to have noticed before him, so he isn't surprised that she already knew.

"Have you figured out a reason why?" He asked, though Aoba can already hazard a guess; neither of them have the faintest clue.

"No," she confirmed.

"They always watch," Ai muttered to her knees. "Neighbors, people on the street, the white masks."

Aoba blinked behind his glasses and raised an eyebrow to Kurenai. She returned his look with small shrug.

Kakashi is suddenly by his side. "Why don't you take Ai back." He said it like it was a suggestion, but Aoba has been around long enough to know when it's not.

"Has the all clear been given?" He'd still like to know that.

"Not yet, but moving her is probably more important." Aoba nodded his agreement, no sense arguing an order he already wanted to do, but now he is _super_ curious as to the conversation that Anbu had with Kakashi. He looked back to Kurenai, who stands up and places a hand on his arm.

"Give me a few minutes and I'll come with you." Her tone says he doesn't have a choice, apparently the kunoichi is attached already. He nods and she's off to the now forested roof of the Kage box.

Sensing his wild curiosity, or perhaps just relaying some needed information, Kakashi turned to Aoba. "I'm not going to get into the details, but apparently a few things were said by Orochimaru that puts some interesting light on Ai. The Anbu that were there for the conversation have been told to keep it to themselves, but we both know it won't stay that way for long."

"So, out of sight, out of mind?" Aoba smirked. "That seems a little cliché for you, Kakashi."

"Yeah," he shrugged, "well either way, we'll try it out. See if it works." Despite the lackluster plan, Aoba nodded his agreement and turned to Ai.

"Let's get out of here."

Ai took a full five seconds to respond. She didn't say anything only got up and moved, glassy-eyed, towards the exit. Aoba followed after her.

They were met by Kurenai, appearing with a Body Flicker, once they exited the building. She easily fell into step with them.

There was one thing Aoba was wondering, however.

"What about your students?"

His inquiry was met with a sigh. "I have no clue where Shino is, he hasn't been found, but Kiba and Hinata are both in the arena's infirmary. According to the medics, Hinata was brought in with a relapse of the injury she suffered during the second stage and Kiba was found passed out in a hallway with Akamaru. He came to before I left and I explained the situation."

Aoba nodded, accepting the information and turning his attention more fully to his surroundings. The roads and buildings weren't in the best shape anymore, numerous cracks and fissures dominated the pathway. For the most part the injured and dead had been carted away already, and the trio made it back to Ai's apartment without any hassle, but they all paused a few feet from the door which was thrown wide open. Aoba put a hand on Ai's shoulder, not that she needed the encouragement to stop, she already had. Looking over, he met Kurenai's eyes and then moved forward on his own.

The open door leaves a wide gap to slide through, but he does so carefully. He doesn't want to bush it or make any other noise to alert anyone inside. With a thought that is second nature, Aoba spreads both his mental sense and his chakra sense, searching for sign of someone still here. He doesn't pick up anything, but he still gave the apartment a thorough search, which only reveals that it has been utterly trashed and if he was more of a betting man, he'd put his money on the trashers being Sound ninja searching for Ai. With a sigh, he goes back to front door and gestures the girls to enter.

Upon seeing her wrecked apartment, Ai only fisted her hands, which told Aoba she was still under the effects of his emotion-pull. It might take her a day to fully shake it off.

"It's not too bad," he said. "It doesn't look like they broke anything, so I guess they weren't _complete_ asses, just tossed the place."

Kurenai muttered something unflattering under her breath before she spoke. "We'll help you clean up."

The job took a few careful prods from Kurenai to get Ai to continue to help, she'd have moments when she'd stop moving and stare at nothing. Partway through, Abel showed up, herding a discontent Seth, to which Ai stopped long enough to seal him away after an apparently one-sided conversation from the cat.

Eventually, they managed to get the place back to being somewhat how it used to look, allowing Kurenai to leave. After the older woman was gone, Ai shuffled herself off to her room, followed closely by Abel.

Aoba slid his hands under his glasses, rubbing at his face and eyes, all the while suppressing the growing groan of frustration.

* * *

Song Credits:

 _White Blank Page_ – Mumford and Sons

 _Let her go –_ Passenger (but I prefer Within Temptation's cover)

 _And We Run_ – Within Temptation

 _The Resistance_ \- Skillet


	9. Everything's Slipping Away

O Hai Thar. It's been awhile... this chapter was mostly written, just a few scenes missing (that gave me trouble) soon after the last, but then as I delayed to write more (I had a spot in mind I wanted to stop at) I just got more and more busy with school and work (mostly school).

I've also found it interesting that the more time that passed the more anxious I became at posting a new chapter. Lots of things happen/ are revealed and I kept thinking "what if it's all garbage?" But I hate to disappoint those who were waiting so... Feel free to read this monstrosity of words at your leisure... I'm not sure when the next one will get up here. (It's so shy)

Also many thanks to those who reviewed, favorite'd, and alerted my story. Each and every one means a lot to me. Seriously.

* * *

Silver Streams

Everything's Slipping... Away

※

Ai woke up the next day feeling exhausted, physically and emotionally. As she rubbed at her neck, she walked the short hallway into the front room of the apartment. A body was sprawled on the couch sleeping, arm draped over his eyes, blanket half off. Her breath hitched as she looked at the form laying in Hayate's favorite late-night after-mission pose.

Elation filled her.

Maybe he'd just had to pretend he was dead for the sake of the invasion. The village didn't want Sound to know he'd survived and gave them information on the forthcoming assault. Ai took a step forward.

And caught sight of black hair.

Despondency flooded rapidly in.

 _"How could I be so stupid,"_ Ai berated internally. _"His body shape is completely different and his skin more tan. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid."_ Tears burned as they filled her eyes, so she bit her lip, hoping to distract herself from the gnawing pit of depression growing inside her.

Food.

Food sounded good.

She should definitely cook something.

Adjusting her weight and stance, Ai changed her walk to the more silent steps ninja preferred as she passed him by and went into the adjoining kitchen.

She had neglected her stock of ingredients, letting food waste away which left her with very little choice on what to make. All she did was set rice to cook and water to boil, maintaining her quiet walk. Preparing food and cleaning out the refrigerator, while trying not to make too much noise proved to be a good diversion.

It at least settled her distressed emotions back into that vaguely numb feeling.

When Ai returned to the other room with food and tea, Aoba was sitting up, sunglasses replaced, but head down and rubbing his thumbs into his temples. "What are you still doing here?" she asked, putting the food on the table. Her question came out a bit more rude sounding than she intended, but too late now.

"Until someone actually bothers to come and give me the all-clear, I'll be here," he explained, leaning back on the couch, while turning his head to the side so he could look at her. Ai, turned away to set the table for two. He put his elbow on the back of the couch. "You're technically still a target for possible kidnapping and there may still be Sand or Sound ninja hiding within the village." Ai responded by humming. The dark-haired ninja watched as Abel came out from the bedroom and curled up on the ground before him like a family dog. Ai had cleaned him before going to sleep last night and he had been returned to his shining silver. "Not that I'd want to try to kidnap you."

"I'm going to eat before it gets cold," she stated as she sat down at the table, serving herself tea, "but you can do whatever you want." Ai knew she was being fairly passive-aggressive about her current state of affairs, but she couldn't find it in her to be anything else.

In the end, Aoba stood up and joined her for the simple breakfast.

Afterwards, however, he got more and more antsy as the day began to wear on. While at first, he was content to watch her set up her micro-forge in the kitchen, obviously melting and pouring molten metal into molds was not his ideal way to pass time. He apparently wasn't designed to play house arrest with a fourteen-year-old girl. Aoba finally broke a few hours past noon.

"We've been forgotten," he snapped, jolting to his feet. Ai looked up to him, anticipating more to come. He didn't disappoint. "I'm going out to get information. You stay here," he stated as he walked to the door. He half turned to face her when he was part-way out the door. "Activate the seals while I'm away," was his last demand before he closed the door harder than needed. She sighed, but did as he told her, stripping off her thick leather gloves to press a bare hand on the door.

Activating them didn't take much, a gentle push of the strangely liquid sensation down her arm had them lighting up. She could feel them turn on and Ai could have sworn she felt Hayate's chakra trickle through the house. He'd been the one that had put them up. Most ninja had some form of protection in their homes. She'd been told that they were "standard, but with a few personal touches to keep anyone wanting in, guessing."

Fingers still lingering on the door, she stood there lost in the sensation of his chakra, real or imaginary. Did seals hold onto their creator's chakra? Was his only there because he'd done the majority of the activating? Would hers eventually push what was left of his away?

Maybe she was just going insane.

"More insane," she corrected herself because surely this wasn't how sanity felt.

Metal nudged at her upper thigh and Ai turned to Abel. A wash of _you're not alone_ rolled over her from him. _There is still us_. Her throat tightened and she gave him a weak smile as she crouched to his empty-eye level.

"What would happen to you if I died," she asked, tracing her fingers along the side of his jaw. Abel twitched his head, but had no answer. She often wondered. The three of them were so tied together, Ai could be blindfolded in the pitch-black, spun until she threw up, and _still_ be able to point in Seth or Abel's direction. Or so she assumed, such a trial had not been performed.

Ai trailed her fingers across his smooth scalp as she went back to her micro-forge.

She smiled as she remembered Hayate coining the term. He'd dubbed it such because it was "microscopic compared to a real forge." He'd been nice enough to let her have her fun though, even when he wasn't thrilled that she'd somehow made a four-foot snake, made of multiple smaller snakes, behind his back, especially when said snake had grown since then. Ai could almost see him leaning in the doorframe of the kitchen, arms folded across his chest watching her.

 _"How many times have I told you to at least open the windows," Hayate's face bordered on disapproving, but the mirth in his eyes said otherwise. "Being smoked out of my house isn't in my plans for the day."_

 _"Sorry! Sorry!" Ai rushed to help him by opening another window. The house wasn't that full of smoke, maybe a little hazy, but not bad. "But aren't these dragonflies cute?"_

 _"Adorable," he deadpanned, mussing her hair as he passed._

Ai shook herself back, but those dark claws were already digging in again. She did her best to ignore them and got back to pouring molds.

Aoba did not come back.

※※※※※

Heavy pounding on the door jolted Ai out of her concentrated state of metal assembly. She was decently sure Aoba wouldn't beat on the door to get her attention.

 _"Unless I wasn't paying attention and he's been knocking for ten minutes,"_ she thought distractedly. Another heavy pound on the door got her to stand up. Before she got there, she heard a heavy slap-thud outside of something being dropped and a voice shouted. "I'm your land lord not your maid, next time your box fills up that much I'm tossing it out!"

When Ai finally opened the door, after disabling the protective seals, and looked out, she only caught a brief glimpse of the land lord's back disappearing around the corner. On the door mat at her feet was a disorganized pile of mail. Ai tilted her head as she wondered just how long it had been since she'd even bothered to check the mail.

She crouched down, straightening the mail into a stack before taking it up into her arms. As she stood, a niggling sensation began to tickle the back of her neck, causing her to look up.

Across the way on the rooftop of the building stood a cloaked figure but standing out in stark contrast to his black robe was a blank white mask. The mask tilted as she spotted him, letting her know that whoever was behind that mask was _definitely_ watching her.

Fear surged up, clenching her throat tight and sending her heart racing.

 _It was growing dark, the three white masks almost seemed to luminesce in the fading light. She stumbled away. A small cat, Abel, shot forward from behind, unseen and unheard, bit into one of their legs. He let out a shout and all of them produced blades._

 _One of the masks, strangely equine-like, came towards her, so fast she didn't see him move. The form was just suddenly in front of her. Its hand grabbed onto her shirt and began to pull. Ai screamed, screwing her eyes shut._

 _There was a sound like a melon exploding. Porcelain shattered. Bits of the mask and liquid, uncomfortably warm, pelted her face and body._

 _The hand jerked, pulling her to the ground before going limp._

 _Her clothes instantaneously began to drink the tepid dampness spreading across the grass._

 _A ring of steel on steel echoed through the air. Dark pressure washed over her, infusing the air with dread. The clanging continued for an agonizing eternity but lasted only seconds before everything was silent._

 _"Are you all right?" A voice asked, calm, friendly, and masculine. Ai began to open her eyes, the warm liquid on her face cooling, sticky and itchy. She knew what she could expect to see. "Ah, wait, let's…" the man rushed out before trailing off. Hands slipped under her armpits and the movement she felt as he picked her up was momentarily dizzying. As her eyes opened fully he slid between Ai and the grisly scene that was undoubtedly there._

 _He was handsome, in a way, Ai supposed. Dark hair, with a pair of matching dark eyes and poking out from underneath wisps of bangs was a Konoha headband, clearly stating his occupation. He was older than her, a young teenager perhaps and despite being a ninja, he had somehow maintained a pale and flawless complexion._

 _"Oh," her rescuer gasped, looking down, she followed his gaze and watched as he pulled out a cloth and a canteen. He wetted it before looking back up at her. He gave her a soft smile and reached up, touching the cold, damp cloth to her face, cleaning away the still drying blood._

 _As he worked Ai finally noticed a second person wandering to and fro in the background. He was harder to see in the almost set darkness for he too had dark hair and he wore equally dark clothing. She could however, from time to time, catch something white flashing on his back as he moved._

 _"There,"_ _the first proclaimed, no longer wiping at her face. "That's better right?" She nodded, whispering a 'thank you' to the stranger. He gave her a bigger grin in response. "I'm always willing to help a lady in need." His smile slipped a bit. "Which, speaking of need, do you know why they attacked you?"_

 _Ai shook her head. "I've never seen so much green before, Hayate said I could go to the park. I was just looking." Her helper turned his head just enough to catch sight of his companion. Now that she should see his face, Ai could see he too sported a ninja headband. She could also tell he was younger than the first boy, but still older than her. She barely caught the younger boy's minute shake of his head. The older one's gaze returned to her._

 _"What's your name?" he asked kindly._

 _"Ai," she answered, straightening up. She was proud of her name._

 _The boy smiled again, this time it reached his eyes. "I'm Shisui Uchiha," he introduced, twitching his chin towards his companion he added, "and that's my cousin, Itachi."_

Instinctually her resting chakra jolted into action, flooding her body beside adrenaline. Ai stumbled back, slamming the door shut and pressing her back against it. The seals crackled back into action as her chakra poured into them. Clutching the mail she'd retrieved to her chest Ai could feel her heart pounding, the beats echoing in every part of her body.

Abel dashed forward, eyes locked on the door, his teeth intermittently whirred as he snapped his jaws. Beneath the skin of her arms, she felt Seth stir restlessly to life, reacting to her panicked emotions and her racing mind.

Why was the mask here? She hadn't done anything wrong, had she?

Her breath hitched as another thought struck her. Why had she seen him? Abel had told her when she was being watched, but she'd never been able to spot the masked people before. After a while they had stopped, or gotten good enough to hide from Abel, but obviously this one had wanted to be seen. Why? A message? A warning? A threat?

This felt like someone was saying 'I'm watching you.'

And this time she didn't have any of her guardians to keep her safe.

A solid knock on the door had Ai nearly tripping over herself to get away. Her chakra began to boil uncomfortably in her stomach.

"Ai," a voice called through the wood. "It's me, Aoba. I need you to open to door, Ai."

The blonde stared at it uncertainly. Was it him? Voice manipulation was a common enough trick among ninja. Hell, you didn't _need_ to be a ninja to imitate other people. She could feel her whole body trembling violently.

"Ai, please open the door. You're having a panic attack, I can feel your chakra and emotions going crazy. I want to help you," the voice, could it be Aoba, reasoned calmly. She couldn't be sure, though. She had no way to be sure it was him on the other side. She didn't want them to take her.

She was so worked up, Ai never even noticed Abel glancing back at her and before she could stop him, he nudged his nose-less face against the wood of the door and the seals powered down. Ai froze in shock from his action and the cat shuffled-hopped backwards to her side as the door opened.

In the frame was, in fact, Aoba, his hands held up empty. She didn't stare at him long, her eyes darted up to the now vacant spot the blank-masked ninja had been. "What's wrong, Ai?" he asked gently. "I felt your chakra practically screaming from a block away." When she didn't answer, Aoba took in her body language and twitched in the desire to turn around and follow her line of sight. Instead he reached to the side slowly and closed the door, blocking whatever it was she was staring at. He could feel her chakra swirling in agitation, rolling around her in a defensive maelstrom.

Even with the door shut, her eyes remained trained on the spot.

"I can't help you if you don't talk to me, Ai."

It took a few seconds before she spoke. "There was someone out there, watching me." Her chakra pulled tighter to her but began to slowly calm.

"It was probably an Anbu," Aoba prevaricated, "you're still a target. The village doesn't want you to be kidnapped." This time his words drew her gaze to him. It was an odd look though, as if she was turning his words over in her mind. Had she picked up on his slight falsehood? Abel chattered his teeth at her and Ai looked down to the cat.

Aoba swore, catching Ai's attention.

"Look, the invasion has put everyone on edge and it's stirring up some nasty dregs. Questions are being asked, that's where I was yesterday, why I didn't get back," he divulged. That was part of what he sat, incredibly uncomfortably, through anyway. He _did not_ want to be in the middle of the council, Shikaku Nara, and Danzo Shimura arguing it out _ever_ again. He also wanted to tell her more, but he'd been very _firmly_ instructed to keep his 'god-damned gossiping mouth' shut. Quote proudly brought to you by one Shikaku Nara.

"So… what? They think I'm a spy again?"

"That was being discussed, yes."

"Oh." Her chakra went lax from its curled knot of tension and Aoba felt a flash of her displeasure before she hid it. Ai turned away, tossing the mail haphazardly onto the table she passed on her way to the couch. Abel trailed behind.

"I'm on your side in this," he tried to reassure, but Ai either didn't care or just chose to not respond. She sat down and started working on what appeared to be a metal bird, about the same size of a crow. "What's that?" he asked.

"A bird," Ai replied, not looking at him.

He bit back his instinct to snap 'I can see that.' "It looks, um… half decayed," he settled on instead. Which it did. The bird had the skeletal structure of its head, ribs, and feet exposed, while its tail, back, and wings, one of which Ai was putting together, had the 'bones' showing, but still sported feathers.

"Feathers don't have the collagen and calcium of bones, thus, no bone structure, so in order for it to fly I had to compromise on appearance."

"Ah," Aoba breathed out, finding his own place to sit and stretch out his legs. "Is it, uh, going to be like the others?" Ai's hands slowed at his question but didn't stop.

"I don't know," she answered truthfully. "Abel and Seth are… special. I made _hundreds_ of dragonflies, but not one of them is like those two."

"They aren't? You're controlling them, then?"

Ai's nose wrinkled in distaste. "I ask. I harmonized my chakra to match them and ask them to show me what I want to see."

"Ask?" Aoba tapped his fingers on his thigh, thinking. "I suppose that works," he murmured. "It's more efficient to coax and guide your chakra into action than to force it. Sounds like you know how to do at least one real jutsu."

"Don't act so surprised," Ai groused at him.

"I'm not." He put his hands up in mock defense from her side-eye glare. "There are a few ninja in this village that think you _migh_ t be somewhat capable."

"I thought I was 'too emotionally unstable?'"

"Well, you are that," he conceded, "but emotion isn't a bad thing, as much as many ninja like to rag on it. In T and I, Cypher, and other Intelligence divisions, emotions are our rice and eggs. They give insight into other people, why they might behave a certain way or do a specific thing.

"Not only that, but there are many recorded incidents," he paused momentarily, "maybe 'occasions' is a better word, either way, there are many shinobi who have experienced an increase of power while executing a jutsu or have managed to bring forth an extra boost of chakra due to a strong emotional response. Which, let me emphasize, may scrape up chakra from the bottom of the barrel, but it may also tap into your life reserves. As you should undoubtedly, and obviously, know, is incredibly life-threatening.

"A big issue being your emotional chakra outburst, is this. And the fact that it tends to blow things up… but I'm not saying you need to shut your emotions away, just stabilize them. We're not fully blaming you, or anyone else, either. You needed training that you didn't get. This situation could have been handled much better, yes, but we were all ignorant, and apparently chose to disregard the information you had willingly given upon your arrival in the village."

"You know about that?" Ai questioned quietly, her hands stilling and finally looking at Aoba. He could feel her emotions jittery and dissonant. A mild sense of despair developing in their midst.

"Can I ask you a question?" he asked instead. She didn't say anything, for or against, so he took the silence as acceptance. "Do you believe all of it?"

Ai stared at her hands as she fiddled with a piece of metal. "I don't know what to believe anymore," she told him. "All I know is where I spent my first seven years was somewhere very different. Hayate would tell me that there was no way to actually verify it, that there were a lot of other possibilities, so I should just let it go." Her shoulders slumped and Aoba could feel her emotions going flat. "I'm tired."

He wasn't sure if she said that to him or herself, but he spoke anyway. "The Third Hokage's funeral is tomorrow, so I won't be around," he stated. "You can get plenty of rest then. I don't suppose I have to tell you to not go out, right?"

"Yeah," she sighed. Aoba frowned, not feeling even a ripple in her emotions.

※※※※※

Kakashi stepped out from the trees and what he saw caused him to stop. Sitting before the Memorial Stone in the barely there light of dawn, was Ai. The only thing he was truly surprised over was that she hadn't been there before now.

"Don't you dare look out your window, Darling, everything's on fire. The war outside our door keeps raging on," she sang softly, head bowed. "Just close your eyes, you'll be all right, come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound." He felt bad intruding, but it was a memorial for a reason, and no one could fully expect privacy. Which she seemed to understand for she looked over at him a moment later, picking up on his unobscured chakra signature most likely.

Her eyes were red-ringed, blood-shot, and had decently dark bags under them. By the time Kakashi stopped just a little behind her, she had already turned back forward, pulled up her legs, and rested her chin on her knees. They both remained silent for a long while before he broke that silence.

"Shouldn't you be with Aoba?" He knew that Aoba would leave for the funeral today, but it was barely dawn, which meant Ai must have somehow snuck out. An impressive feat for her, sneaking past a well-trained ninja.

Apparently, however, she decided his question wasn't worth an answer, instead replying with, "It's like life is some sort of cosmic joke. I suppose I should have expected it, we'd been talking about it, a month before he…." She trailed off. He knew she meant before Hayate had died, but the rest, Kakashi wasn't so certain what she was speaking about and she must have known that because she changed the topic. "I got the mail yesterday, the first time I looked at it in," she shook her head, "I don't even know how long. This was in it." She pulled out a manila envelope that had been between her body and her legs and tossed it to his feet.

Stamped on the front was Konoha's official seal, which meant it was governmental business. He crouched to pick it up and opened the flap. Inside were a number of papers. He glanced through them and what he saw must have been devastating to Ai. It was the finalization of Ai's adoption into Hayate's family, the papers that said the request had been put through, signed by the late Hokage.

"I suppose that makes me Ai Gekko now," she said, adding under her breath, "some family." Kakashi let the sheets slide back in; he closed the envelope back up before he tossed it to land beside her.

"The wheel keeps turning," he replied.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." She didn't seem too thrilled with his words of wisdom. "The sun must set to rise. There is no rose without a thorn. Blah blah, the world keeps spinning. I get it."

Kakashi's brow furrowed and his visible eye narrowed. Ai was sounding especially testy today. He tried a repeat of his earlier question, but this time worded differently. "Why did you sneak out?"

She shifted onto her hip, changing her position to lay her arms and then her head onto the raised platform of the memorial.

"I decided I didn't care." Her answer caused him to frown behind his mask. It was a statement that had numerous red flags accompanying it. However, before he worked out what to say or do next, he noticed her breathing even out and he blinked. Had she actually fallen asleep? With dark circles like the ones she had under her eyes, he supposed it was possible. Kakashi sighed. He might as well let her rest, she'd probably been awake all night.

He tucked his hands into his pocket, staring at her back. How _had_ she snuck past Aoba, he was a better ninja than that. Or at least _theoretically_ he was. Though, now that he thought about it, where was her cat guard? Kakashi glanced about but couldn't distinguish hide nor hair, or metal plate in the cat's case, of Abel being around.

 _"I guess I can do double duty while I'm here,"_ he thought, turning his attention back to the memorial and losing himself to his own thoughts.

It took a few drops of rain to pull him back out some time later. The threatening grey clouds on the horizon had rolled in and opened up. As the rain began to fall more heavily he took a few steps forward, picking up the envelope Ai had left on the flagstone foundation of the monument.

She might not care now, but she'd regret it later if she let the papers get soaked. He flicked the cumulated water off with two shakes of his hand before tucking the envelop safely in his robe between two layers of clothing. Just as he finished, he felt Yugao's presence arrive.

He could hear the sound of her sandals scuffing the grass as she stepped forward, a bouquet of white flowers in her arms. She knelt down, setting them on the stone, not too far from Ai. He turned around, taking a few steps. "Better make it quick, the Hokage's funeral has started already."

"Paying your respects to Obito?" She sent back at him. "Why don't you just come here earlier, instead of making excuses for always being late."

"I've been here since dawn," he told her. "Being here makes me think of the past, and my mistakes. And I've made plenty of mistakes." He heard Yugao let out a breath.

"How long has Ai been here?" she asked.

"Longer than me, which is saying something, but I don't know for how much."

"Ai," he heard her say softly. Kakashi turned enough to glance over his shoulder at the pair. Yugao's hand was on Ai's back, gently rubbing back and forth. Ai soon stirred, sitting up and rubbing at an eye with the back of her hand.

"Yugao?" she asked sleepily.

The purple-haired kunoichi smiled at the blonde. "Sorry I was away for so long."

"Iss'okay," Ai slurred. She moved, wrapping her arms around the older woman's neck. "I'm sorry."

"It's all right, Ai," Yugao whispered, rubbing the girl's back. "Come on, let's get up." Ai let go and Yugao helped her unsteadily to her feet, which were likely numb from the few hours of sitting awkwardly on her hip. She kept an arm around Ai's shoulder.

"Where're we going?" She asked, leaning into Yugao.

"First, we're going to get you an umbrella," she told the girl. "Then I'll be attending what's left of the Hokage's funeral. You wait outside for me, okay?" Ai nodded.

※※※※※

Kakashi vanished soon after they began to make their way from the Memorial Stone, Yugao, however stayed and walked with her towards the Hokage Tower. At some point, Ai wasn't paying attention to notice if they'd actually stopped somewhere, Yugao produced an umbrella, cutting off the pouring rain, not that Ai was sure it mattered anymore, they were both thoroughly water-logged.

Yugao left her with the umbrella outside the wall surrounding the tower and she found an empty bench in the plaza to watch as people walked about but gave them no particular thought.

"Bye Iruka-sensei, see ya later!"

Her head jerked back up at the shout. Running from the large gate before the tower was Naruto, standing just outside was the target of his cry, Iruka. The brown-haired ninja returned his wave of farewell, which faltered slightly when he noticed her.

Once his old student was gone, he made his way over to Ai, who was just now noticing that it had stopped raining at some point.

"I'm glad to see you're out, Ai," Iruka said as he arrived. She lowered the umbrella, pulling it closed. "It's been awhile."

"I suppose so," she murmured, putting the point of the umbrella on the ground and twirling it. He sat down on the bench beside her. She didn't bother to even try and fake eye contact with Iruka, but she could feel him watching her.

"I hear Aoba's been teaching you," he finally said. Ai nodded. "You know, we should get together for lunch, you can tell me about what you've been learning. I'd like to hear about your progress. Do you have any place you'd like to go in mind?"

She shook her head. "No."

"How about you meet me at Ichiraku Ramen in a few hours?"

"You'll have to pass it by Aoba," Ai said, grudgingly. "I can barely sneeze without his approval."

"I imagine it's very difficult," Iruka began, but Ai decided to drop the rest of the bomb.

"He might be upset," she glanced at Iruka from her peripheral sight. "I kind of snuck out."

"Ah. Why did you…" he started, "actually, why don't you tell me about it over lunch."

"Okay," she agreed as Yugao appeared. The two exchanged a few pleasantries, that Ai paid no attention to, before the two women left, walking back to the apartment building.

"I'll probably be sent on missions again soon," Yugao told her as they parted, "but I'll try to visit as often as I can and I'll definitely be by tomorrow."

After Ai got back inside she went to her room, changing out of her soaked clothes. Abel was there, sitting statue still where she had left him. Over her shirt she pulled on her jacket, tugging the front to get it to sit better. As she left, Abel got up and followed her to the couch to wait for Aoba with her.

He arrived only a few minutes later and he was furious.

"I can't believe you did that!" he snapped the moment he came through the door, which closed with a solid bang. "I told you not to go out and what's the first thing you did?"

"Sneak out."

"Sneak out! After I told you not to leave. After you promised!"

"I didn't promise," Ai quibbled. The look Aoba shot her was quelling even through his sunglasses.

"I looked all over for you! Where did you go?"

"The Memorial Stone."

That took the wind out of his sails.

He reached up, rubbing at his temples. Aoba sighed after a moment, dropping his arms.

"Ai, you have to work with us," his tone was near pleading, which caught her attention more fully. "For Hayate's sake, if no one else's. I know, you're discontent, sadly there's not much I can tell you that will help. Hell, _I_ don't even know much, but I do know this; if you start acting out now, things will only get worse for you. I told you yesterday, the invasion ruffled feathers and it's gotten some people extra vigilant."

"Why do you even care what happens?"

"Because I'm not a cold-hearted bastard. People are allowed to care about things, sometimes even other people. And there are times I even like you, when you're not acting the petulant brat. Just because you're obnoxious sometimes, I don't think you should be put –" Aoba snapped his jaw shut. He took a breath in through his nose, before letting it out of his mouth. "Hayate was a very well-respected ninja in this village, and if he vouched for you then there is no reason to not believe him."

Ai looked away, she could feel the exhaustion rolling in again and she no longer had it in her to argue. She _really_ wished Hayate was here. She felt so exposed without him.

"How bad is it?" she asked. Ai wasn't sure how much he even knew, but surely, he knew the way the wind was blowing.

"Just… don't do anything stupid and then I'm sure it will all work out." Aoba pulled out and sat down in a chair at the table. "Iruka talked to me, he said he wanted to have lunch and catch up with you. I was tempted to say no, just because of your behavior," he lent back. "but it might be good for you to reconnect, so I agreed. I'll walk you there and he'll walk you back." He reached into his top, pulling out a manila envelope. "Kakashi gave me this to return to you." It hit the table top with a fwap. "Don't misplace it, it's important."

Staring at it Ai could feel her eyes beginning to burn.

"Tell me one thing; how did you manage to sneak past me?" Aoba set his elbow on the table and rested his cheek onto his fist.

"I didn't," she replied, watching he brows furrow. "I did what any good teenager does. I went out the window."

"We're three stories up."

"You've been teaching me to tree-climb. The wall wasn't much different."

He snorted, closing his eyes behind his glasses. "I am never having children if this is what I have to deal with." He continued to mutter. "Can't climb a tree, but she can descend a building." He looked back at her, "I know I felt your chakra in you room, though. At least before it suddenly vanished."

"You did." Ai stated. "Or you thought you did, anyway. Abel's signature is close enough to mine that –"

"He faked your signature," Aoba breathed out in awe, looking to the cat.

Abel turned his face to the man and tilted his head slightly as if to say _problem?_

"That is… quite impressive. But obviously not infallible."

"I'm sure he's capable of improvement," Ai murmured, setting her elbow on the arm of the couch and resting her cheek on her fist.

The silence lasted only a bit as Aoba fingered a bag containing multiple small yellow rocks sitting on the table. "What is this?"

"Sulfur," he gave her an odd look that said 'why?' She responded with, "You can find it at hot springs, you know."

"You and your rocks."

Ai shrugged, but stood up and began to tidy the apartment. She had left a lot of stuff laying around. She busied herself with the cleaning until Aoba reminded her of her lunch with Iruka.

She should leave it clean.

He walked her over to the ramen place, which she had never been to before. They were the first to arrive, so he waited with her until Iruka showed up moments later. With a muttered 'good luck,' Aoba left. Ai wasn't sure if he meant that for Iruka or her, but either way it seemed sarcastic.

 _"Guess he's still a bit upset about earlier,"_ she thought, entering the stand.

"How's the training going?" Iruka asked as they settled onto stools.

"Aoba thinks I'm stubborn," she answered. Iruka grinned.

"Well, you kind of are." Ai just shrugged.

"Welcome!" The owner, or so Ai assumed, said. "I haven't seen you here before, this your first time?" Ai answered with a soft 'yes,' and the owner continued jubilantly. "What can I get you? Your first bowl is on the house!" She blinked at him. That was awfully nice, if a little weird.

"Uh, miso, I guess."

"Excellent!" He turned to Iruka and took his order as well, before turning around to his stove.

Iruka returned to their conversation once the owner was done with them. "What have you been learning?"

"He's been teaching me how to climb trees."

"How's that going."

"I have yet to successfully do it. I have, however, used the technique to slide down a wall."

"Ah, I see. So, that's how you got away from him."

"He didn't seem too happy with my progress."

Iruka chuckled. "I can't imagine why." He opened his mouth to say more, but before he could speak an orange blur collided with his back.

"Hey, hey, hey, Iruka-sensei! Sorry I'm late," the orange-wearing ninja said, clambering onto the stool on the other side of Iruka. "I was getting back into my training, ya know?"

"That's fine, Naruto," Iruka assured the boy, then turned to the girl beside him. "Ai, this is Naruto."

"We've met," she desultorily stated. "Sort of."

"Oh, hey! I remember you from the exam! Sorry, I shouted at you."

He was _still_ shouting at her. "All is forgiven." Iruka expression said he picked up on the insincerity of her words, but Naruto seemed to take it as face-value.

"Great!" Naruto stared longingly as Iruka and Ai's ramen was delivered. "Can I get a ramen here too!" He half asked, half demanded. Naruto returned his attention back to her. "Are you okay after what happened during that elimination round?" Ai stiffened at his words. Remembering the hospital. Then the last time she'd seen Hayate. "It seemed pretty scary, whatever it was."

"I'm alive, yes."

Naruto deflated, obviously picking up on her mood now.

"Oh," he breathed out. "I'm sorry. Iruka-sensei told me what happened." Ai felt heat suffuse her body. Did he really need to tell Naruto that? What was the point, he wasn't a part of this. He should have left the annoying boy out of it. "I didn't mean to upset you," Naruto finally whispered. She couldn't even grind out a fake 'It's fine' to appease him. "I bet you're really sad," he continued. "I am too. A lot of good people got hurt and died. That hurt and sadness carves you up from the inside and it's terrible," his tone firmed, "but you know what I think? I think it leaves behind just a bit more room for love, that you can hold just that much more joy.

"I know it hurts so bad now, that you don't think you can possibly take anymore, but I'm pretty sure, he, Hayate, your brother, wouldn't want you to give up. He'd want you to continue, to obtain your dreams. He left you his hope and his love. I know I can't say I knew him at all, but I'd like to get to know him better, by getting to know _you_. I want to be your friend, Ai, and learn all I can about you. About _your_ hopes and _your_ dreams. That way we can stand together. And we're all stronger if we're together, right?"

Ai fisted her hands, nails scratching against the wood countertop as she curled her fingers in. It was so quiet in her mind for once, as if that voice had gone completely silent in order for her to absorb Naruto's words. Her throat constricted and she longed but…

How could _he_ know? How could he understand how much it hurt inside? To know your brother had died and you couldn't do a thing to protect him.

 _Nine shadows lash and crash behind bars. Hurt, sadness, loneliness. Just Wait I'll Become Hokage!_ _Hope, warmth, sunlight, bright and clear._

 _I wish I was brave enough to love you._

Ai jerked back from the counter, her stool skidding as she stood. She could feel the panic and fear in her welling. She had to leave. Without a word, and ignoring Iruka calling her name, Ai turned and walked away as fast as she could without running and crashing into all the pedestrians that filled the streets.

Her feet carried her forward, on and on. The stone road passing below her shoes. She watched the stones, stared at them, at their mismatched nature, their different colors and shapes. Ai wasn't sure how long or to where she walked, she only stopped when her feet halted and no longer desired to take another step.

The street was quiet now. She could hear the distant sound of civilization a few roads away, but here, here was quiet. Dragging her eyes from her booted feet, Ai looked up, blinking at the large stone entranceway and two massive stone walls stretching in opposite directions as far as she could see on either side. They blocked this section of the village off from the rest. The empty gateway stared uninvitingly down at her.

On the front of the beam glowering from on high, worn and having long lost its previous glory, was the Uchiha crest. The red, almost pink and the white, nearly the same grey as the stone it was carved into.

She'd walked all the way to the Uchiha clan grounds.

Ai had only been inside once, after Shisui had pushed her in a river and they'd stopped here to get dry clothes, since it had been closer than Hayate's.

It was so quiet here now. Empty and sad with no life living within.

Honestly, it had been the first place she'd thought to go when Aoba asked if she knew a way to trigger an episode, but she'd been afraid of what that would have brought about, so she went with her second idea. The graveyard. As she stood in front of the empty archway leading to a desolate ghost town, she was glad she'd followed that instinct, for while it was empty of people, it was not empty of chakra.

She could feel it, even as she stood outside. It was a dark cloud, pushing at an unseen metaphorical barrier that kept it contained inside the Uchiha district. Not a perfect barrier, obviously, since she could still feel it leaking out.

Within, sounding far away in the distance, she could almost hear something inside, calling, crying, begging.

It felt so familiar that she unconsciously took a few steps closer before her brain caught up and stopped her.

Ai glanced around, checking for anyone nearby. There wasn't a single soul. The street outside the district hadn't been a bustling road before the massacre, but after it seemed no one wanted near. With the creepy feeling she was picking up, Ai could understand why.

A feeling of ' _is this wise'_ washed over her and Ai looked down to find Abel joining her, his shoulder blades juddering briefly against his ribs. The cat crossed in front of her before circling around, his ribs bumping one by one on the back of her leg before he settled on her right.

Was it wise?

A part of her screamed that no, it was not wise. It was a stupid, _stupid_ idea to even _entertain_ the notion she was currently toying with.

Then there was another part of her which was morbidly fascinated with the thought of what might be there. What she might feel.

She touched the top of Abel's skull with the tips of her fingers, scratching her fingernails against the metal.

Turning back to the entranceway, Ai stared into the compound as she felt something else roll out. A sharp, fierce desire pulled at her from within.

She stepped forward, bracing herself for the onslaught. As she passed through the gate, everything she felt dissipated, leaving Ai standing just inside, confused. Abel's nails clacked on the concrete, the only sound in the quiet. He looked around in perplexity, his head swaying from side-to-side, but unlike her, he was crouched low, ready for whatever might come.

 _"That was… anticlimactic,"_ she thought.

Abel swiveled his head around to look up at her.

 _Leave_ , came the strong impression.

"I just…" she murmured, glancing about. Then it came again, the bizarre sensation of something calling to her from further within. Not her name, it was simply something familiar, tugging at her, begging to abate her curiosity. Ai stepped forward, moving to the feeling, ignoring the nagging 'don't do it,' in the back of her mind.

Abel rattled his dislike.

"It's fine," Ai defended, patting at her upper side. The weapon she'd put under her coat was still there. "I just want to find the source, then we'll leave."

Finding the originating point proved more difficult than she expected. She felt the impression in a straight line, which had her running into dead ends or discovering a house blocking the way. After many twists and turns through the maze-like district, she found the spot.

Once there, the feeling shrank, narrowing down to a fine point that pulled her attention to the wall beside her. It was an Uchiha crest, exactly like all the others running along the wall, except for one aspect. A hole pierced in the center, cracks radiating out, created from the many years of exposure to the elements.

She stepped towards it. Anger, despair, and resignation drifted from the spot.

Ai reached up to finger the spot. She touched it and her stomach wrenched. Fear washed over her and Ai wanted more than anything in that one moment to pull away, but her hand felt stuck to the stone.

 _Obsessed, obsessed, obsessed. Worthless compulsion that enslaves, leading to fear. There is no hope left._

Gasping, Ai fell back, hitting the ground, hard. Pain lanced up her hip.

 _Pain. Screaming. Fear. Begging. Why? Why? Why me?_ The feelings poured in, drowning her. Hundreds of voices screaming in pain, anguish, and terror. Every cry was a knife cut, sharp and fast. Lingering behind on her. Something rose up from them. A dark serenity.

 _Resolute, firm._

 _This must be done._

Ai was pulled back to awareness, her face was flat against the rock pathway and pain radiated all over her. She rolled to her front her stomach riotous and heaves racking her body. Putting her hands under her, she pushed up, but stopped halfway up.

Her hands.

They were covered with blood.

 _Panic. Terror._

 _Blood was everywhere. Dripping down the walls. Seeping across the ground. It rained through the air. Red was everywhere she looked. Everywhere._

A hard jerk yanked Ai back to herself once more, slamming her into reality.

Abel clattered around her, creating a racket. Once he had her attention, he stopped, pleading for calmness.

Tears unceasingly ran down her face, stinging as the fell. She was in pain, her hands covered in scratches from…

It was then Ai realized she was _outside_ the district. Abel hummed his body. He had dragged her out, that's how she'd gotten the scratches on her hands and face. The cat clacked his claws in worry, creeping even closer to her.

She threw her arms around him, his metal cold against her face. "I'm sorry. Thank you," she nearly blubbered. "Let's go back."

Abel nudged his head under her arm and gave her support as she stood up on shaking legs. It took her longer than she'd ever admit to anyone. All the while her hip throbbed painfully and her knees felt like they had been replaced with bricks, but Abel's cold metal felt good on her torn hands, which were burning.

As she walked back to her apartment complex, the people in the streets that spotted her gave her strange looks and a wide birth around her. Between Abel actually being with her and her beat up appearance, she wasn't surprised by their behavior. She'd avoid herself if such a thing were physically possible.

The only bright side was that Aoba was not at the apartment when she did arrive, which gave her the privacy to clean out the scratches she had everywhere and to inspect the impressive bruise forming on her hip. Instead of waiting around for the lecture she'd no doubt be getting for her beat-up appearance and vanishing act on Iruka, she fell on her bed, completely exhausted, and drifted off. Which only resulted in her snapping awake some point in the night after a nightmare filled with blood and fire. Topping off the night terror-sundae was the screaming, which she was sure she could still hear even while awake.

The next day, when she finally left her room, wasn't much better.

"You really should set the wards at night, or at least lock the damn door if you're going to be obstinate," Aoba scolded from the front room the moment he heard her leave hers.

"Why bother," she retorted back as she exited the small hallway, "Abel will make a mess of them before they can get to me."

Aoba's lips pursed but changed the topic upon seeing her. "What happened to you?" he asked brusquely.

"I tripped," Ai snapped, moving past to the kitchen. Aoba's jaw tightened at her response, letting her know he didn't buy her words in the slightest. However, once again, he changed the topic.

"Don't bother eating, we're going to see Inoichi today."

"'Don't bother eating?' This coming from the man who harangued me about how 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day' just a few days ago?"

"It's a little _late_ for breakfast, don't you think?" He didn't let her reply and continued with, "Inoichi has a talent for making people sick if they have a meal before seeing him."

"Why?" she bit out.

"Because you've been moping about for days now, which tells me you're not improving from the pull I did on you. That means there's a good chance something went wrong and it'd be better for Inoichi to fix it than for me to try, possibly making it worse."

"Fine, whatever" Ai growled, changing course for the door. It wasn't like she had much of an appetite anyway.

"You're going out like that?"

She turned, folding her arms across her chest. "Is there a _problem_ with what I'm wearing?" Ai wore a pair of black pants and a white shirt that had hydrangeas flowing from left to right.

"No, but do you ever bother brushing your hair?"

"Not when people nag me about it." Ai turned away, running a hand through her hair. It wasn't like it was tangled, it just didn't like to stay in place.

"You're rather tempestuous today."

She chose to ignore him, not feeling up to keeping the argument going and yanked open the front door. Abel darted through first, springing off the railing in his ascent the roof. Ai exited next, shortly followed by Aoba. Once clear she shut the door and deliberately locked it in his view.

The pair walked the few blocks to the main road, turning south. It was late enough in the day that the road was fairly busy, however the people in the street shuffled quickly out of their way and a number of them even put their heads together, whispering as they passed.

"Do you think it's true?" she heard, those words just loud enough to catch.

Aoba's body shifted as he took in the rising tension in the air. "People sure are acting a little apprehensive today," he murmured.

"They were pretty edgy yesterday on my way back. Abel was with me, so I guess I upset the locals."

He kept his face pointed forward, ignoring the people. "I'm not sure that's it…" The way he trailed off left Ai believing he was in thought.

"I thought she was weird before, always talking to herself, but did you hear…?"

"Sayuri has a friend, who knows a guy, who knows a ninja, that told her…"

"…she's carrying some sort of disease."

"…she thinks she's from another planet."

"…she's unstable."

"…she's dangerous."

Ai could feel the apprehension building in her with every word.

 _Have you heard, there's a rumor in St. Pertersburg? Have you heard, what they're saying on the street?_

"She's a failed experiment."

"She's a spy, did you know that?"

"I heard she works for the that new village, the one that invaded."

"Her chakra makes things explode and she can't even control it."

"She was a friend of that Uchiha boy, the one who killed his clan."

"How can they let someone like that loose in the village?"

"The left coming up, take it." Aoba hissed under his breath.

Ai glanced in the direction he told her, finding the spot. She swerved off the main road, taking the street Aoba mentioned. Once out of the heavily trafficked view of the road, he grabbed just above her elbow and yanked her down another turn on the right and then continued to pull her down different streets and alleys, coming to a halt on a deserted stretch of road. She immediately rounded on him.

"How do they know all that? They're not supposed to know that!"

"I don't know, but none of it points to anything good." Fear began to fill Ai and she wrapped her arms around herself as her body began to shake. "We'll get this worked out, Ai. Please don't panic, that won't help anything. We're still going to go to Inoichi, we'll just take the back –"

 _Itachi._

Ai's head swiveled to where she heard Abel call to her.

"What?"

Abel wove out of the underbrush, coming up to her. His head rose and he nosed her hand. An image of two figures walked together, cloaked and hats hiding their faces, flashed through her mind.

"What is he doing here?"

Abel's body shivered, telling her he didn't know, but he didn't think it was good.

And that they were headed in this direction.

"What is it?" Aoba questioned, interrupted her stare-off with Abel. She looked to the taller man.

"Abel says that Itachi is here." Aoba straightened, looking down the road. "And that he's with someone else. That they're coming this way."

Aoba's hand went up into his hair, scratching at his scalp. "That's not a good thing."

"You should go alert somebody. The Anbu, or whoever." His gaze turned back to her. "I knew Itachi before… before. I can probably delay him."

"And if you can't?"

"And if I can?"

"I can't just _leave_ you."

"Whoever I tell, probably won't believe me." Aoba shifted, looking back down the road. "And that's if I could even get to wherever it is I'd need to go." She could tell Aoba knew she was right by the change in his stance. He looked back down at her, his hands came up to land on her shoulders and his eyes locked with hers.

" _Delay_ ," he emphasized, "do _not_ engage." He let go of her, taking a few steps back. "And _don't_ do anything stupid, either." Aoba vanished in a body flicker, leaves kicking up in its wake.

Ai bit at her lip. Maybe this could work out in her favor.

Abel rattled himself at that thought.

"Bushes," she told him. "Go." Abel stared at her before slipping back into the forest besides the road. Glancing about, Ai spotted a bench a little way away. She went to sit herself on it to wait.

From how Abel had reacted, it shouldn't be too long. She tilted her head up, looking to the sky. She'd only been there a minute when she heard Abel's rattled warning from behind her.

 _"I sense there's something in the wind, that feels like tragedy's at hand."_ Ai sang quietly to herself as she watched a metal bird gliding about in the sky, " _and though I'd like the stand by him, can't shake this feeling that I have, the worst is just around the bend."_ As she finished the last note, two figures rounded the bend of trees to her left. The pair wore long black and red cloaks and straw hats partially concealing their features.

Once they got closer, Ai stood, tucking her hands into her pockets and the two halted. She studied them for a moment before speaking. "Hello, Itachi. It's been a long time, huh?" Ai smiled at him.

His hand went up, grabbing onto the edge of his hat, which he pulled off of his head, revealing part of his face. He next popped open the top few snaps of his cloak, letting the rest of his face show. She felt his eyes, red with the Sharingan active, search her. "Ai," he said lowly, leaving a short pause before continuing in a somewhat harder tone, "you shouldn't be here."

"Why? Am I not allowed to visit an old friend?"

"You know what I am. If you are seen with me, it will only become more difficult for you here."

Ai looked away, letting out a quiet, mirthless laugh. "More difficult?" She looked back into his red eyes. "Hayate is dead."

Itachi's eyes closed slowly and his companion shifted. "Is she really a friend of yours, Itachi?" He shifted again, removing his own hat from his head, revealing dark blue hair, a slashed mist headband, and his livid skin coloration. "Kisame Hoshigaki," he smiled, showing off his sharp, shark-like teeth in an unsettling manner. Ai turned her eyes from Itachi at his companion's introduction, meeting Kisame's bizarre white eyes.

The sound of crashing waves filled her ears, loud and roaring. _There's a hunger, slowly growing. Chasing shadows, but never knowing. Keep on running farther, faster. And keep on searching for this haunting, has an answer. And I know you will find me, for I am breathing only for this._

Kisame's grin held more grimace now and the rapid blinks suggested she had spoken the words she'd heard aloud. It probably wasn't a good thing, but it was too late now. What did it matter if another stranger thought her crazy.

 _So, go ahead, spread the word, tell a friend, tell them the tale!_

"Ai," Itachi let her name out in a sigh, she turned, meeting his red eyes once more. "I am sorry for your loss."

She scoffed. "They've come back, the masks. I'll be lucky if I follow Hayate soon."

"Is that why you are here? You want help? You know there is nothing I can do. Not without you making very difficult decisions first."

Ai couldn't feel anything yet, how long did it take to alert the Anbu? How long did she have? Hopefully enough. "I have walked there," she confessed, "down the empty streets, devoid of life, but _filled_ with chakra." Ai closed her eyes and she could see the walls, the paint of the fans faded year by year. Time slowly working its way across everything. "I desired to know, to learn for myself."

"Ai," Itachi's tone was warning.

"I hear the screams," Ai brought her hands to her head and as she spoke the sounds and emotions came to her, fresh, as if she was there, "the crying, the wails. And above all _'Why?'_ " she cried, " _'God, why me?'_ " She took in a shuddering breath, opening her eyes, looking at Itachi. He controlled his face so well. He was much more open all those years ago. Ai felt tears sliding down her cheeks.

"You need to stop, Ai," he commanded. "What you are doing is dangerous."

"I know." She felt her heart squeeze and her throat constrict. She blinked, taking another deep breath before meeting his eyes, which burned with well-controlled emotions. "I'm sorry. You're right. I have to make some very difficult decisions." She watched as realization dawned in his eyes. "And I'm making them."

"You're delaying us."

"I'm sorry," she repeated, tears still falling.

Itachi's partner, Kisame, moved. His hand rose and he drew the large sword from his back. "Some friend," he commented, flashing his sharp, white teeth at her. "I'll make it easy on you, step aside, and you might not even get that hurt."

" _They think I'm crazy, but they don't know the feeling. They're all around me, circling like vultures. They wanna break me and wash away my colors._ "

"All right then," he murmured. He only made it a few steps before Abel burst from the undergrowth. Kisame reacted with impressive reflexes for a man so large, bringing his sword up to bear in time to set it between him and Abel's spinning saw blade teeth. His teeth clamped down, shredding parts of the cloth the sword was wrapped in. Sparks flared up where Abel's top teeth hit the opposite way against the strange scale-like blades of Kisame's weapon.

The livid-skinned man studied the metal cat for a moment, then hefted his sword up, bringing Abel's not so inconsiderable weight with it. He brought them both down again, Abel meeting the metal railing separating the walkway from the canal. With a great clang and splash Abel was off, vanishing under the water. Kisame swung his sword in a surprisingly elegant arc between her and him, bringing it back bear. Ai stared at it as it _wiggled_ and _gurgled_.

"Well, I'll admit, I wasn't expecting to find a puppeteer in Leaf, usually your kind stick to Sand."

" _I cannot stop this sickness taking over. It takes control and drags me into nowhere. I know you're watching, I can feel you out there_."

Kisame moved forward at her once more. This time Ai lifted her arms and channeled chakra into them. She felt the seals she had painted on her skin flare to life and rocketing from her sleeves came dozens of small metal snakes. Once more Kisame moved his sword, deflecting most of the small serpents, one slipped past and latched onto his cloak at the shoulder. His lack of response let her know that the fangs hadn't pierced the fabric fully. Not that she was expecting them to, they were meant more as a distraction, and irritation, than anything else.

When the stream of snakes ended, Kisame lowered his sword, grabbed onto the one at his shoulder and pulled it free, tossing it to the ground with the rest. He no longer looked amused. "Any other tricks up your sleeve?" he growled, treading through the scattered metal snakes.

Ai raised her arms, letting the sleeves of her forearm pool at her elbow. It showed off the inked seals, but nothing else. "I'm afraid not."

"Time to put you out of your misery then."

The third time he came at her proved as successful as the other two. This time, however, the attack, which was honestly more delay tactics than anything else for Ai knew she wouldn't win this fight if she'd been training her chakra since she was a baby, came from two directions.

Abel burst from the canal, springing off and over the railing, to only receive Kisame's sword in his spinning mouth once more. It sent the cat skeleton back at the railing, yet unlike before Abel latched his long-clawed toes around the railing and held himself tight in place, refusing to release the scaled blade.

From behind him, Seth had hooked his many segments together as he lunged at the large man. Kisame's sword, currently in Abel's mouth, could not be swung down to deflect the incoming metal snake. Seth wrapped himself around Kisame's left leg and continued up to his right wrist, making the moving of his sword even more difficult and temporarily holding him still.

This would probably be the last move she could make, Kisame was ridiculously strong, Ai could practically taste his salt water chakra suffusing the air as his agitation with her delays increased. She couldn't even call them attacks against him, the only reason they'd succeeded was because he was under the incorrect assumption that she was a puppet user and most likely hadn't suspected her bizarre postponing tactics.

What she was going to do now though, that was an attack.

She slipped her hand into her jacket, along her left side, and under her arm, where she tightened her hand onto the grip of her weapon. Flipping of the leather strap that held it in place, she drew it, turning off the safety as she did so and leveling it at the livid-colored – and livid-tempered at this point – man.

She saw confusion enter his white eyes, which wasn't surprising. Ai had never seen a gun anywhere in Ninja Land – not that she'd ever traveled very much – but she didn't imagine anyone would know what it was.

Between her face and her actions, he was quick to catch on to the fact it was a weapon and as she squeezed the trigger he began to put _real_ effort into getting away. Ai squeeze thrice, each pull echoing a thunderous roar, as Kisame used Abel's position to aid him. Pulling away would have been harder, but he pulled himself towards the metal cat teething his sword. Two bullets whizzed past, while the third tore a swath through the shoulder of his cloak, splitting the fabric and grazing across his skin.

Rage entered his features, he was _done_ playing. It took him only a second to shatter his way through the metal creatures holding him. Abel, ripped from the railing, was slammed back on to it, before receiving another to the stone walking path, finally dislodging the cat with a sound like someone dropping a crate of kunai. He clattered away, attempting to get back up, but his fibula had been shattered and that would require time to fix. Seth was simply powered through, the strength of Kisame's muscles snapped the snake like a ribbon, which he threw from himself.

As this happened, Ai turned her sight from the large man and met Itachi's eyes. With Kisame distracted, she saw his eyes sadden, he knew, just as she knew, what was coming. Kisame wouldn't take her _actual_ attack laying down. She lowered the gun, the precious powder she'd been able to make, spent.

She felt bad, guilty, for doing this in front of him, but she'd rather die than end up in the clutches of Orochimaru or whoever those blank masked men belonged to.

Though, she had to wonder. What would happen to her? Despite what she told people, despite what Hayate had insisted. Ai was _positive_ she wasn't from this world. Would she be in their afterlife? Hers? Were they the same? Or was there simply none for her? Did whatever Death God there was not even know she existed?

Even so, she wanted this.

Kisame turned to her and Ai closed her eyes.

"A thrill of hope," she whispered her voice shaking, "the weary world rejoices. For yonder breaks a new glorious morn." Her voice grew stronger as Kisame's footsteps grew closer. "Fall on your knees. O hear the angels' voices. O night divine, O night, O night divine."

She heard his sword whistle through the air as he brought it down on her. Ai involuntarily flinched as it clattered against something that was _not_ her flesh. Her eyes shot open, meeting the broad, green covered back of a shinobi. They traveled up, finding dark hair, and chestnut brown eyes gazing at her from the side.

A strange sense of both disappointment and relief filled her.

"You did well in delaying them, Ai," Asuma spoke as he held Kisame's blade up with a pair of chakra knives. "Now you need to leave." He turned his attention to his opponent.

"Let us handle this from here," another, softer voice said calmly. Ai turned to see Kurenai, who gave her a soft smile.

She dropped her eyes away from the dark-haired woman, and with a sigh, walked away from the four combatants, tucking the gun back into its kunai-turned-gun holster.

"Seth," she said, lacing her tone with command as she moved to the bench she'd originally been sitting in. She could guess Asuma would probably be furious and Kurenai disappointed with her for not leaving and getting to safety, but Ai couldn't bring herself to care. There was nothing either of them could do about her staying and she half hoped Kisame would make a move on her if he got a chance. If he was even half a well-trained ninja, Ai was sure he was still aware of her and her actions, along with those of her 'puppets.'

Ai settled onto the concrete bench watching as Abel finally pulled himself up off the ground, his broken bone melding back together and his badly dented ribs reforming to the correct position. He skulked back to her, the first few steps with a limp as he fixed himself, rattling his body with a reprimand for her actions. She rolled her eyes away from the cat, which only further upset him.

Seth, who had pieced himself back together as Abel had repaired and returned to her side, came to her as well, slithering along the ground sedately, his usual bloodlust absent. He slipped under the bench, rustling into the bushes behind her.

Making sure she showed the most disregard and insolence she could, Ai rested her upper arms and elbows on the top of the bench, sliding down and leaning back until the corner of the top bit into her back painfully and rolling her head back to stare up into the sky. Above them, with lazy flaps, circled a silver bird.

The fight continued, to which Ai paid little attention. However, when water exploded, showering her, she looked back down at the fight. Kakashi had arrived and with an impressive use of water jutsu had cancelled out one of Kisame's. Another Kakashi stood on the water of the canal with Itachi and Kurenai.

In an exchange of words, she learned that Kisame's bizarre-o sword was named Samehada. Which Ai thought was odd, though accurate, it did have an uncanny resemblance to shark skin. If turned into a weapon she supposed.

The Kakashi on the walkway vanished and the fight erupted again. This time between those on the canal. When the water erupted in an explosion, Asuma called out and dove over the railing to join the two fighting Itachi.

Once the other man was gone, Kisame turned his gaze to her, revealing his sharp teeth in a sadistic grin. "Looks like it's just you and me." Ai shifted slightly trying to give off her best nonverbal 'come at me bro.'

Abel stepped between them and Ai could hear his claws flex into the concrete. The tall missing-nin looked at the cat, studying its defensive stance. "Color me impressed at how quickly you could reattach your chakra strings." His eyes moved back to her. "There's not many that could do it that quick, and out of sight. Especially after Samehada severed them."

Ai tilted her head and said in a sing-song tone. "I've got no strings to hold me down, to make me fret, or make me frown. I had strings, but now I'm…" Abel whirred his teeth, short and fast. "Free."

"Not even a little fear?"

"Death would be a release."

"I bet it would," Kisame murmured under his breath.

A heavy grunt followed by a splash, pursued shortly by both Kurenai and Asuma shouting at Kakashi, caught their attentions. Ai heard Kisame hiss out a breath of air between his teeth before he vanished, reappearing by Itachi's side.

Shortly thereafter came the revelation that the two missing-nin were here for Naruto. Kakashi then told them part of what he knew, that they were a part of an organization called the Akatsuki. Kisame ran towards them after an order from Itachi, only to be halted by Guy showing up, pushing the ex-Mist-nin back.

"I'm the Leaf's Fiercest Beast of Battle! Might Guy!"

"More like Mighty-stupid-lookin'-Guy," Kisame heckled. Ai couldn't stop the short huff of laughter.

After Kakashi collapsed, Ai could only guess it had to deal with the Sharingan, Guy gave a few orders to his fellow ninja in preparation for the next round of fighting. While Kisame seemed ready for another bout, Itachi, however, ordered a retreat.

"That's too bad, it was getting fun," he responded to his companion. His look turned to Ai and he bared his sharp teeth in a mockery of a grin. "See ya around, little pup. You and I still have things to settle."

With that the pair vanished.

"What a creep," Ai muttered, watching the water ripple from the force behind their body flickers.

The three ninja, plus the unconscious Kakashi had barely returned to the walkway when a squad of Anbu appeared. They held a quick and quiet conversation that Ai could not hear, and didn't have much interest in hearing, before the four darted off. A few moments later more ninja flooded the scene and things began to turn hectic.

Ai had taken to studying the material of her boots before anyone deemed approaching her. His sandaled feet invaded her vision first, followed by the edges of a black leather trench coat as it settled in place.

She looked up to Ibiki.

Who's steely face said he was anything but happy to see her.

"Come with me."

* * *

Credits

 _Safe & Sound _– Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars

 _Brave Enough_ – Lindsey Sterling  & Christina Perri

 _A Rumor in St. Petersburg_ – Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty

 _Sally's Song_ – Danny Elfman

 _For You Only_ – Trading Yesterday

 _Slipping_ – Neil Patrick Harris (Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog) Watch it.

 _My Demons_ – Starset

 _O' Holy Night_ – Adolphe Adam (I like Lexi Walker's performance)

 _I've got no strings_ – Pinocchio


	10. Every Heart is not a Gentle One

I am SO sorry. It has been such a long time. I got busy with finishing the school semester. Then I got busy with work (I'm a seamstress and we work on the big summer play the area puts on. I never want to see lace again for a very long time). I am still very sorry that it took this long to put out another chapter, I did try to work on it, but it came to me so slowly and when I did want to work on it all my ideas left, but when I was in the middle of sewing (or right before going to sleep) they would come to me only to be partly forgotten by the time I got home (or woke up).

Anyway, THANK YOU, all of you, for sticking with me. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

Silver Streams

Every Heart is not a Gentle One

※

Ibiki had enough courtesy to not drag her down Main Street, however, that meant they had a longer walk through the weaving backroads, which left her walking beside him in awkward, and on his half, furious, silence for much longer than she would have preferred. Keeping up with him proved difficult as well, for he obviously wanted to get where they were going quickly, leaving Ai practically jogging in order keep up with his long-legged speed walk.

Unsurprisingly, it turned out he was taking her to the administration building by the academy. Once inside, he took her to a quiet hallway that obviously saw little traffic and from there to some stairs leading down.

They went down and down and down some more, coming out of the stairway into a semi-dark and very chilly hallway, which was thoroughly unpleasant with her damp clothing.

Ai knew down here were their interrogation rooms. Or at least _some_ of their interrogations rooms. She was willing to hazard a guess that they had others in more secure locations. These were most likely the ones for people that weren't likely to attack them. Or maybe they were no longer in the location she thought they were, after all they had walked for a long while and there were numerous hallways branching off.

However, she knew with clarity that Ibiki probably had a few words to say to her and most likely didn't want to be interrupted.

The tall man brought her to a room. In it was a table standing solitarily in the middle.

"Place any weapons in your possession on the table," Ibiki ordered. His tone was completely business-like, lacking the inflection of emotions.

" _He must be pretty mad, indeed,"_ she thought walking to the table and reaching into her coat. She pulled out the shoddy gun she'd made and placed it on the table. Next, Ai rolled up a sleeve, placing her fingers on the seal. A small amount of chakra released the metal tangle named Seth onto the table with a clatter. The snake shifted, his head slithering out of his coiled body, which he dropped on top of the gun before pulling them and the rest of his body back into a metal ball, tucking the weapon into himself.

She turned around. Ibiki was still standing by the open door, watching her and Seth. Abruptly he about-faced and strode out the door, obviously expecting her to follow. Which she did.

Ai was led to another room, this one too had a table in the middle, however on either side it had a chair and one wall was dominated by a mirror that Ai knew for a fact was two-way.

"Take a seat," commanded the head of Torture and Interrogation. She slid into the nearest chair, back to the mirror and immediately began to trace the metal loop meant for cuffs riveted to the table. Ibiki, meanwhile, joined her sitting across the way.

The two sat in what was supposed to be an uncomfortable silence, Ai didn't mind it, it was a delay of the inevitable, before he finally spoke. "Let's begin with your affiliation to Itachi Uchiha. How long have you known him?"

"You already know the answer to that," Ai sighed. "You may recall bringing me down here before." Ibiki had had a previous long talk with her after all the Uchiha had been killed.

"Humor me," he droned.

Letting out another sigh, Ai leaned back in the uncomfortable metal chair. "Three years, if we're not counting the time he's been away as applicable to the 'known him' timeline. I met him soon after I got to the village, but it's not like he and I hung out every day and played Dream Phone."

That had been Shisui. He was the one always dragging her out of the house.

"And what did the two of you speak about today?"

"Nothing in particular. He told me to go away. I told him Hayate was dead. He said he was sorry. Then I told him I wander around in the Uchiha district for kicks. Then he accused me of delaying them." Ibiki's eyebrows furrowed at her words, the only sign of his discontent with her answer.

"It was then Kisame Hoshigaki attacked you?"

"He really wasn't trying hard. I guess he wasn't too interested in beating up a teenage girl. At least not until I shot him."

"The weapon that you placed on the table? The sound it made was reported in many different sections of the village. Three successive crashes of thunder, yet hardly a cloud in the sky. What is it?"

"My people called it a gun. It fires projectiles at a high speed. The powder required to do so is not very difficult to make. The Alchemist Guild has been using it, poorly, for decades. Smoke bombs, fireworks, they all use the same thing I did, but at a much less powerful and directed degree. Sort of."

"You've been messing with guild-made products?"

"No. _Technically_ , I invented it. They use a cheap knock-off."

"I doubt they'll see a difference if they find out what you've done. You are associated with this village and your actions will reflect on us."

"I'm not associated with-"

"You live here," he cut her off, "you're associated."

Ai hissed out a sharp breath in discontent.

"Have you been in contact with Itachi Uchiha since he deserted the village."

"No."

"And yet he managed to infiltrate the village with seemingly no difficulty."

"Why would I lie?" Ai grumbled, getting angry. This was that stupid spy thing cropping up again.

"You tell me."

Her temper flared. "Fine! You caught me! Itachi and I have been secret pen pals for years and I've been telling him all of the Leaf's dirty little secrets. Also, I've been misfiling the paperwork for months!"

Ibiki's hand slammed down on the table. "This isn't a joke!" he thundered.

Ai slapped both of her hands down on the table and rocketed out of her seat. "Then stop treating me like I'm the moustache-twirling villain behind every stubbed toe in the village! I just wanted…" Her anger fled as quickly as it had arrived, leaving exhaustion behind. She could feel her eyes beginning to burn. Shoulders slumping, Ai flopped back into her chair, curling in on herself and placing her face in her hands. "I just wanted…" she muttered again.

What did she want?

 _"A home,"_ her mind supplied for her. She'd hardly felt content since Shisui had been killed. Then Itachi had murdered his clan a few weeks later and she'd developed this gnawing paranoia of _'something bad will happen.'_

She'd had a home with Hayate, but now…

Everything was off-kilter.

Slipping.

After a few more questions such as; 'When did Kurenai and Asuma arrive?' 'When did Kakashi arrive?' 'Did you see what happened to him?' 'When and where did Aoba leave you?' 'What were you doing before the incident occurred?' and 'Why don't you recount the situation as you perceived it?' Ai attempted to answer the best she could and once he apparently deemed himself done he got up and exited the room, leaving her behind. She set her arms on the table and rested her head on them. The metal of the table was bitingly cold on her skin.

It was sometime later when Ibiki returned. Leaving the door open, he gestured for her to come with him and he escorted her back to the first room they'd visited. Seth lay in a motionless twist atop the table where she had left him. As she approached him, guiding chakra into the seal on her arm, Seth moved, clacking his nose across his ribs, causing her to pause and sigh.

"Did you really?" she asked him.

He repeated the motion and she got the impression of _'It could be used against you'_ come to her.

"Yeah, but…" Seth grated his body, with fingernails-on-the-chalkboard sound, against the table. Insisting on the correctness of his decision. "Fine, whatever," Ai let out, rolling her eyes. She touched his skull and she felt him vanish into whatever pocket dimension the seals had created in her arms. "Honestly…" she groused, itching at the painted seal. He really hadn't needed to absorb the gun into his body. No one would have been stupid enough to try to take it from him in the first place.

Turning back around to face her escort, Ibiki led her once more through the not-any-warmer-or-lighter hallway, eventually depositing her outside in a place where they _had not_ entered. "Return to your home and remain there," he ordered, practically shutting the door in her face. Which left her looking around, trying to figure out where in the village he had abandoned her.

"Jerk," she muttered, viciously kicking a pebble as she made her way down the quiet road. In all honesty, he had been somewhat kind to her, not making her walk of shame down Main Street back to her apartment, but that didn't stop her from cursing at him internally for a bit longer.

It was as she was passing through an intersection that someone crashed into her, sending her sprawling to the ground, scuffing up her hands as she tried to catch herself. Ai looked up, a number of nasty words ready to spew from her, only for them to die in her throat when she spotted the reason for her current position. Sasuke Uchiha stood above her, staring at her wide-eyed and panting.

She pushed off the ground, hands burning. "I'll accept you not bothering to help me up, but not even a sorry?"

"You," he huffed.

"What?"

"Is it true? Did you fight Itachi?"

"No," she answered truthfully and finally taking in more of his appearance. She could spot beads of sweat rolling down his face. He'd obviously been running through the village, but Ai doubted it was because he'd been looking for her. "I fought his blue-faced companion."

"Good." Ai blinked, raising an eyebrow. _Good?_ "Come with me," he ordered.

"Excuse you?"

The boy let out a frustrated growl. "I don't have time for this!" His arm shot out and before Ai could pull away, his hand fastened around her wrist in a surprisingly iron-like grip. She pulled and twisted, but only succeeded in getting her shoulder wrenched when he darted off at a fast sprint, jerking her behind him. By the time they stopped she was the one panting heavily and covered in sweat.

"What the hell!" she snapped, tugging at her arm again, but he still didn't release her. Before the pair, the wall of the village stretched upwards.

"We're going over?"

"I don't think so."

Sasuke whirled around, wrenching her arm again. "We don't have a choice. They'll stop us at any of the gates and we have to go find Naruto. He's in danger."

"That's a shame and all but let me rephrase my previous statement. Do I _look_ like a ninja? I _can't_ go over that wall. I'm hard pressed to stick my hand to a tree. Also, I'll be in deep, _deep,_ you-can't-possibly-understand-how-deep of trouble if I even get spotted this close to the wall after what happened earlier." That dark-haired boy studied her for a few moments before he let go of her arm and turned his back to her.

"Get on."

Ai let out a sarcastic chuckle. "I'd rather die in a ditch."

The glare Sasuke sent over his shoulder was ferocious and Ai was pretty sure she caught a flash of red. "We need to find Naruto before they get to him. And if they are already there, or if we come across them first, I need you to keep the other one busy while I handle Itachi."

"That's a noble sentiment and all but –"

"The sentries are going to pass by in a few minutes," he interrupted. She could hear the desperation rising in his voice.

Ai opened her mouth to shoot him down once again.

 _One day you will realize, the stars you are chasing shine bright deep inside you. But will you ever let it shine from within, and cast all of your fears aside?_

She snapped her mouth shut and looked up the tall wall that blocked off the outside.

The idea was so beyond stupid she couldn't put proper words to it.

 _Hands are tied. My body bruised. I've got nothing to win and nothing left to lose. I can't live, with or without you._

"Look," Sasuke caught her attention. He was facing her once more. "If you come with me, I'll vouch for you. I'll say I forced you to come with me."

Ai swore. "I guess it's not like that is very far from the truth." She hadn't even noticed the tension in Sasuke, but at her words his shoulders relaxed. He turned back around and she'd barely even put her arms around his neck before he launched them both off the ground. His hands went under her legs to secure the piggy-back hold.

In a matter of seconds, they were over the wall and landing in woods beyond. He bounced between the trees putting a fair distance between them and the village quickly. Once past the sighting distance of the lookouts Sasuke brought them to the dirt road and put even more speed into his run.

"Do you even know where we should be going?" Ai asked into his ear, trying not to shout, but talking loud enough to be heard over the whipping wind.

"Shukuba Town is the closest, hopefully we'll catch up to them there." Ai raised an eyebrow. _Inn-town_ Town? Was he aware of how many places to check that name suggested? His next words proved he did. "Naruto's with a tall, white-haired, old man, we'll probably want to split up when we get there to search, but we'll also want to try to keep tabs on each other incase one of us needs help."

"Right," she dragged the word out, "or." Ai raised her hand and let her chakra pour out of it. She didn't direct or channel it in anyway, she simply let it flow. She did however light it up. It didn't luminesce to the human eye, but it worked as a beacon for Abel or Seth. Not that they'd have trouble ever finding her, but she used it as a way to let them know she wanted them.

Abel had been on his way to her since Ibiki had dropped her off and Seth was already with her. Tori, however, arrived shortly after her call. The silver bird dove from the sky, dropping down to her eye level. Empty sockets met eyes and Ai pictured Naruto in her head, she then dropped the flow of chakra in her hand before flinging it forward.

Tori flapped her wings, clattering her metal feathers in acknowledgement of Ai's desire, and took off higher into the sky. She quickly outdistanced Sasuke as she flew further ahead of them.

"She'll scout ahead," Ai told him, bringing her hand back to secure her grip on Sasuke once more. "And look for Naruto, as well."

"You have another one?" Sasuke asked in disbelief.

"Freshly minted," she intoned back, looking to the woods flying past them. Not that she could recall the moment. Ai always blacked-out when they gained their 'life' or whatever it was that ran them.

Still staring at the passing trees, Ai briefly tapped her fingers on her arm, flicking chakra through them again. She had no doubt Sasuke would notice that, but he wouldn't understand the meaning of the pattern. The silver glint in the woods on the other hand, did.

Abel, who had just caught up, put on the brakes, pulling off a one-eighty that would have broken anything else's neck, and shot back towards the village.

They arrived at the town a short time later with Sasuke skidding to a halt outside the entrance and letting go of Ai's legs. Her feet hit the ground and she let go of him, straightening up the few inches she had on the boy. It was then she turned her attention to the town sprawling before her.

The place was bustling.

Signs hung everywhere displaying names of shops, inns, food stalls, gambling halls, and other more unsavory businesses. There was a constant drone of activity, making it hard to hear any one thing in particular. Ai couldn't help but feel all the town was missing were flashing neon signs and perhaps a Caesar's Palace or two. Or maybe it had the Daimyo's Palace. Ai tilted her head a little. _"Or would that be considered treasonous. Certainly at least in poor taste."_

Just looking down the road they were on, Ai could already spot a dozen places Naruto could possibly have been. _If_ they were even staying in the town and hadn't just passed through.

"Anything?" Sasuke asked as he turned to look at her.

"Not yet," Ai shrugged. "But if he's indoors that will make it a bit more difficult for Tori."

"We'll have to go door-to-door then. It'll be easier if we split up." He gave he a sharp look. "Try to be quick about it."

"Yeah, yeah," she said as Sasuke shot off without a backwards glance. Ai sighed, wondering if he had even bothered to consider the possibility that the _adults_ knew what they were doing.

Ai strolled leisurely to the first inn and asked the person at the front desk if they had seen a blond boy, about yay high, wearing orange, and travelling with an older man with white hair, only to receive an immediate negative answer. She thanked the man, possibly the woman, Ai couldn't tell and the voice hadn't helped her figure it out, before she left at the same pace she'd arrived.

Outside, Sasuke was already long gone, most likely harassing other hostellers, or desk minders, or whatever they were called.

On her way to the second inn on the street, Ai passed by a brothel, with the ugliest and most garish exterior she'd ever seen on any building, and a restaurant, with the worst smell she'd ever had the displeasure of smelling coming from it. Before she entered the hostel, however, Ai heard the metal clatter of Tori arriving.

The bird landed, somewhat haphazardly, on a chest high stone lantern. Once situated, she looked to Ai and opened her beak, creating a screeching cawing sound with the hinge there.

"Yeah?" she asked the bird. "All right, go and circle, but make sure you get Sasuke's attention first." Tori rattled her feathers before pumping her wings to take off once more. As she left, Ai looked back the way she had come, closing her eyes and concentrating. She could feel Abel out there, but was he… yes, he was coming closer. She hoped he had succeeded in getting someone to come back with him. He didn't have many good ways of getting someone to follow him that most wouldn't consider to be some type of assault.

Opening her eyes, she turned back to look further into town, picked out Tori's location and took off at a most-definitely-not-a-ninja run.

By the time she arrived she could already feel a fight going down and seeing as how the street had cleared, so could everyone else. Though, they probably _heard_ it instead of feeling the chakra surging through the air. Her heart was telling her to go in, that she should at least _try_ to help, but her mind, and very much her instinct, screamed at her to find somewhere else to be. Preferably across town, or better yet, outside of it.

Ai glanced about the area as the internal debate raged. That was when she noticed a compromise. Spotting a fire escape down an alleyway, she turned her back to the inn that currently held the fight and jogged over. Coating her hands in chakra, Ai did her best to haul herself up to the first level of the metal escape intent on using it to get to the roof. By the time she reached the top the chakra had changed to something that felt more, Ai rubbed at her arm as she felt a _slimy_ sensation press against her. Slimy was the best word for it. It was like she'd gathered algae with her bare hands or had gone skinny dipping in a swamp.

Though, with that thought in mind, Ai titled her head at the inn across way which now seemed to have taken on a strangely frog-like appearance.

Black fire erupted from the side and two shadows shot out, hitting the side of the building beside the inn before ricocheting upwards to the roof and shooting off again, this time passing by her on the roof of the next building over.

The two figures in black and red were easily recognizable from their initial interaction only a few hours earlier. It felt as if time slowed as Ai watched the pair dart past. Then they were a half dozen buildings away.

"Tori!" Ai shouted. The bird wheeled and tumbled far above her in the sky, adjusting her position. The bird dove on an intercepting course to the fleeing pair. As she passed in front of them, much further away now, Tori exploded into dozens of glinting pieces of metal, far to close for the pair to avoid, forcing them to pass through the drifting bits.

Once again, as tended to be her her modus operandi, the exploding bird wasn't an attack. Ai could feel the bits of Tori they'd passed through, the ones that had stuck themselves to them continuing at an exceptionally great speed away from her.

She could see in the distance as Tori pulled herself back together and made her way back to her creator. As the bird arrived, she felt, now far beyond her sight, as the tracking bits of metal Tori had landed on them stopped traveling one by one.

Ai clicked her tongue against her teeth, hissing out frustration. "I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise." Itachi was smart, he probably knew the moment he passed through Tori's debris field what Ai had tried to do. She turned back to the inn, which now had its more wooden appearance back. Distantly, she felt the last bit of metal stop moving away.

Tori clattered her wings, calling those last bits back to her and Ai could feel the bits drifting their way back.

Sighing, Ai looked over the edge of the roof, the street was still empty of pedestrians, but from what else she could feel, Ai was pretty sure Abel had at least entered the boundaries of the town. She slipped over the small lip around the roof and hit the fire escape with a clang and despite trying to descend safely the short drop from the last platform still sent reverberations up her legs.

At that moment Abel rounded the alleyway corner at speed, his claws left deep grooves in the dirt road. He approached her, shifting himself from side to side. Ai could feel his concern as he looked her over for injury.

"I'm fine," she said, placing her hand on his head. Abel turned and followed her out of the alley and to the inn. The cat shivered and Ai saw a flash of green, almost groaning at the idea of the person the image conjured. "Guy?"

Abel jerked his head in a nod but sent along the impression of _'one to listen,'_ as well.

The desk clerk was no where to be seen so she walked past and to the stairs, not that she would have stopped for the clerk anyway. She had just set her foot on the first step with a second commotion started above her. However, knowing Itachi and Kisame had booked it away, and Tori wasn't setting off the sirens, she knew they hadn't returned. Ai could hear the shouting about halfway up, Guy's deep timbre echoed down the hall alternating with another voice, which she didn't recognize, reverberating through the inn.

Turning the corner at the top of the stairs, Ai could see the clustered group of people. The dark shape of Sasuke was slumped on the floor against the wall, while the other three, two of which were Guy and Naruto stood around him. The white-haired older man, facing in her direction, noticed her first and stopped midsentence as his eyes met hers. She broke contact immediately at the overwhelming humid feel she got from him and spotted the _huge_ amount of damage done to a wall. Bits of wood and plaster were scattered everywhere.

"This is a mess," she stated, ignoring that _slimy_ feel coating her arms again. "Who pays for the damages?" Ai cocked her hip settling a hand on it. "Is there such thing as ninja house insurance? Because if not, I can think of a good racket." The older man she didn't know raised an eyebrow.

"Ai," Guy said, moving towards her, "it is good you're here."

"I considered absconding," Ai inspected her nails, "but living in the woods like a hermit just isn't my thing." At the blank looks she added, just as blandly as before, "They were jokes, I hate being dirty."

"I see." Guy's words were spoken haltingly. He regained his proverbial footing quickly. "We'll be leaving soon, Sasuke requires medical attention." His words caused her eyes to drift back over to the unconscious dark-haired boy. Looking at him, slumped, bloodied, _and_ with his familial resemblance, she felt something twist uncomfortably inside her.

Maybe she should have put some effort into helping.

"…I see now I should have intervened sooner," the old man said, his words brining her back to the real world.

"Wait. Ai interrupted the beginning of Guy's response. She turned to face the man. "Are you saying you _let_ Sasuke fight Itachi? By himself? Is there something _wrong_ with you? How irresponsible can you get? He's just a –" He cut her off.

"I didn't see you there helping him out," he snapped at her.

That stung, especially since she'd just thought that herself. Ai's gaze drifted back to Sasuke. But it wasn't him she saw anymore. It was another boy she'd known so long ago. She flinched as she heard a gunshot.

 _Blood splattered across the dirt._

The old guy was still talking. "…so you're in no position to lecture –" It was Abel interrupting this time. He placed himself between her and the tall, white-haired man, spitting and hissing as angrily as a metal cat with sawblade teeth could. His sudden appearance caused the man to blink and take a half-step back.

"Fine, whatever, I was wrong," she hastily got out, the want for a fight gone at the sight of the dead boy. She turned her back and addressed Guy. "I'll be outside." Ai didn't wait for his consent, or lack thereof, before leaving the way she'd come. As she passed to the front entrance she idly noted that the desk clerk still hadn't returned, however her mind was on other things.

Like the seven-year-old boy kneeling in the dirt, unlike the others he wasn't crying. He was staring defiantly up at the man about to shoot him.

Ai leaned against the frame of the doorway, her strength abandoning her once again.

She wished he had a name for her to remember him by, but he only had numbers, just like she had. She did her best with that.

Zero-Eight-Six.

He had been the closest to her own designation.

She closed her eyes, picturing him.

The dark fuzz of his shorn hair beginning to grow back in. His amber eyes bright as he showed her all the secrets the complex held. The back ways no one used, the interconnecting maze of air vents, and the hidden passages tucked away and forgotten.

He was the only reason she'd survived that night. If he had never shown her the things he had. Naoki and his squad would never have been able to get her out.

Though somedays she wondered if it would have been better if she'd been shot with the rest of them.

A soft rattle caught her attention causing Ai to open her eyes. Flapping gently nearby was a small butterfly-sized bit of metal. One of the pieces returning to Tori. Yet it didn't go to the bird perched on the roof. It fluttered its way over to her and as it neared Ai held her hand palm up towards it. The butterfly landed and she closed her hand around it.

From it she felt a _very_ strong emotional push fueled by anger, which she could only translate as ' _leave it be._ '

Itachi had apparently left her a message. One that also left her with the impression that he wouldn't be too thrilled to see her again. Not that he'd seemed thrilled to see her in the first place.

Ai jerked her arm upwards, letting go of the bit of metal sending it back to Tori.

Moments later, just as she was lowering her arm, she heard footsteps from within the inn. Multiple clashing steps. She didn't even need Abel's help in telling her who they belonged to.

"I'm glad you didn't go far," came Guy's deep rumble and he actually sounded glad that she hadn't gone far.

"Like I have anywhere to go," she grumbled back.

"We're heading back to the village and the sooner we get back the better." Ai nodded and pushed herself off the wooden frame.

She followed behind Guy, who carried Sasuke on his back, and the other older man, who she still hadn't learned the name of. Naruto trailed along behind them as well, nearly in line with her. From time to time he threw some not-very-surreptitious glances her way. Surprisingly, he held his tongue. Ai shoved her hands in her pockets and slouched her way through town.

Once outside the main entrance of town there was a bit more chatting before Guy bequeathed Naruto one of his green jumpsuits with much ceremony. A disturbing amount Ai thought, but Naruto seemed beyond ecstatic about it.

After the gifting, the two groups went their separate ways. Ai doing her best to ignore Guy and Abel doing his best to trip them both as he darted circles around them before he eventually galloped off the road. Despite his dancing about, he did not stray far and Ai continued to watch him idly as she walked.

The small party had walked for awhile in silence. Ai quite content, before Guy spoke. "Why did you come out here Ai?"

She blinked, looking at the much taller man from the corner of her eye. "Because Sasuke asked me to." She looked back forward. Might as well tell the truth. "He heard about what happened earlier and he asked me to go with him to help. Not that I did much of that."

"And you sent," there was a slight pause, "Abel back to get help?"

"It's not like either of us would stand much chance against Itachi or his blue friend. I tried to tag them with bugs when they left, but," Ai let out a breath, not quite a sigh, "it seems Itachi knows my mentality too well." Her eyes drifted up to Tori, flying high above them. Guy's eyes followed her path, spotting the silver, glittering bird as well.

They walked a little farther before Guy asked, "Do they talk?"

Ai whipped her head to him so fast that she caught the toe of her boot on dirt and she stumbled a little. The way he asked, the tone of his voice, she got the feeling that he didn't mean in her head. She still asked, "Like sit-down-and-have-a-chat talk?" Guy bobbed his head. "No."

"Could they?"

"Well, in the sense that language is only sound vibrations we've giving meaning. I suppose theoretically, he could vibrate his body to imitate words. The same way a parrot does," Ai shrugged, "kind of."

"Have any of them tried?"

"No, not verbally. Abel's tried to speak with others mentally, but none seem to be able to hear him like I can. He's given up on that."

Guy accepted her answer with another nod. "When he came to find me, he made a racket, clattering his bones and grinding his teeth. He continued to dart in front of me at each attempt I made to get around him. I had heard things about him… about you. I chose to ignore his attempts to garner my attention. It was not until he began to repeat a sound, over and over, until it began to sound like a name. Sasuke." Ai stared at the green-clad ninja who towered above her, eyes wide and mouth slight agape. "He kept repeating Sasuke's name and I decided to chance that he was trying to tell me he knew where to find him. It seems my faith was rewarded. Abel brought me directly to the hotel, too late obviously, but he still did it."

Ai turned he gaze to Abel, who was slinking though the grass on the side of the road. He straightened his head up and rattled.

"He… says it was the only way to get your attention. He didn't think you'd follow him otherwise."

"I most likely would not have," Guy agreed. "I shall make sure to mention your willingness to help on my report."

Ai gaped at him again. "But, I…" She found herself unwilling to keep speaking. To confess that she _hadn't_ wanted to help. However, it was the idea that, in the long run, Guy's statement would help her that closed her mouth. He seemed to take her loss of words differently.

"You may not have been fully successful, but you still reported the incident… in a way and you attempted to track two S-ranked criminals. You showed you desired to render aid and there is only so much that can be expected from the untrained."

She felt like all that was missing was a pat on her head and the words 'it was a valiant attempt.'

※※※※※

Their arrival back to the village was uneventful. Guy spoke briefly with the two gate attendants before he escorted her to the hospital where he had Sasuke admitted. However, despite the number of nurses, doctors, and gurneys. Guy himself carried Sasuke to the room he would stay in, which Ai only followed him to after he gestured for her to come along.

"Stay here until either I or Aoba come get you," Guy ordered her as he passed by on his way back out.

In the room, Ai grabbed the visitor's chair near the bed and hauled it to the side of the room out of the way of all the medical attendants bustling about. She settled into it, watching the doctors and nurses take Sasuke's vitals, insert an IV drip, and hook up other equipment meant to monitor him once they were gone. Slowly, one by one, they left until Ai was alone with the steady beep of the heart monitor and Sasuke's quiet breaths.

A light tinkle on the window glass lifted Ai's gaze.

Hanging on the wall, head peering in was Abel. Ai heaved herself out of the chair and opened the window to let him in, closing it after he passed. The cat plodded his way over to the bed, plonking his metal butt down with a thud on the other side of her and began to watch Sasuke as well.

Releasing a sigh, and a roll of her eyes, Ai grabbed the chair she'd moved and dragged it closer.

With nothing better to do, Ai tapped her fingers in a meaningless pattern on the armrest, staring at the sleeping boy all the while. The similarity between him and Itachi was greatly apparent, in the shape of nose, the curve of his cheekbones, yet while unconscious it was strangely lessened. As if sleep lifted the weight of stress Sasuke carried with him everywhere. Stress that Itachi had carried so regularly all those years ago.

Still carried.

 _This is made for so much more. Only small and insecure, for now._

 _When it seems all is lost, when you only need hope and strength to carry on. It's so easy to lose your way and slip into the night._

Ai snapped back to reality as the door surged open, nearly slamming but was stopped short. Standing in the doorway was a panting Sakura, her eyes glued to Sasuke. Ai threw a quick glance to the ticking clock on the wall.

 _"Looks like the rumor mill is running on time,"_ she thought, looking back to the pink-haired girl, who didn't seem to notice Ai was even there.

Clutching her hands to her chest, Sakura walked daze-like towards her unconscious teammate, stopping when she reached the foot of the bed. After an uncomfortable amount of time, and once Sakura started to look like she might cry at any moment, Ai shifted in the chair. The movement finally pulled Sakura out of her stunned state causing the girl to turn her eyes to Ai, and blink dumbly as she finally became aware of her company. Sakura's mouth opened like she intended to say something, but no words came out.

Ai waited unperturbed.

Eventually Sakura got out a stumbling, "What are you doing here?"

"I was told to stay here," Ai said simply, then allowed her vision to drift away from the girl.

"Oh." Sakura shifted from foot to foot, wringing her hands. It took a few moments for her to speak again. "You're… you're Ai, right?"

"Yes."

"I remember you from the Chunin Exams. Kabuto –" she cut off at Ai's cold, sharp glare.

"Don't," Ai ground out between her clenching teeth, "say that name."

"S-sorry!" she immediately apologized. Ai turned her face away, breathing deeply as the rage in her stomach turned to the burning threat of tears.

Abel gently rattled himself to break the tense silence, garnering both the girl's attentions. He slunk forward, his back lowered, approaching Ai. He tossed a look at Sakura as he passed, but once by he pressed his head into Ai's hands. Beneath them she felt his cool metal warm to a gentle and comforting heat.

"I'm sorry," Ai murmured to Sakura.

The door slammed open, making both girls jump and Abel drop into a crouch.

"You are in deep sh—" Aoba halted mid-word, spotting Sakura in the room as well. "So much trouble." Ai rolled her eyes to the ceiling, relaxing back into her chair. "Don't ignore me. Get up and get over here." Abel rose from his crouch and shivered, tinkling his metal body.

 _We go_ , rolled across her mind.

"All right," Ai breathed out, rising from the chair. She moved past Sakura, dipping her head in parting to the girl.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Aoba began the lecture all about running off, leaving the village, being in the vicinity (again) of two criminals, the dangers of all the previous situations, and on and on. The lecture, which she barely listened to, continued all the way back to the apartment where he finally left her with "I rescheduled with Inoichi for tomorrow," his voice hardened for his next words, somehow, "seeing as he's busy with today's occurrences. I expect to see you up and ready in the morning." He began to turn away, but paused, " _Early_ in the morning."

"Sure," Ai agreed her voice dull. Aoba's brows furrowed as he most likely narrowed his eyes at her behind his sunglasses. He nodded once before finally leaving.

With a shove, the door swung shut with a thud and Ai turned, further entering her empty apartment.

* * *

Sorry for any errors, I didn't reread the later half as much as I usually do in order to put this up sooner. xD

Credits:

 _Dearly Beloved_ – Amalee (Kingdom Hearts cover)

 _With or Without You_ – U2 (But Amy Lee does a great cover)

 _Every Heart/Fukai Mori_ – BoA (Once again I prefer a cover, this one also by Amalee, which also adjusts the original lyrics a bit, so I guess I'm really using her version)


	11. What have I Become, my Sweetest Friend?

Hey all! I'm still alive! And I have come bearing (after 2 months) my next chapter, which I decided to post it when I hit a naturally good ending spot, despite wanting to put more. I decided against drowning you guys with another 12k monster. The ending may not be as edited as I liked, I seriously hit the end and went "POST IT!" with minimal re-reading. Let me know if there is something atrocious grammar wise, I'll try to fix it on my own later, but a heads up is always nice. xD

Also I would like to say Thank You, I mean seriously. You all put me to shame. All the nice things you say and the favorites and follows and hits. It's humbling. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the last ones.

* * *

Silver Streams

What have I Become, my Sweetest Friend?

※

Ai was already awake for Aoba's arrival in the ungodly hours of the morning, his appearance heralded by the door hitting the wall with a bang. The only conciliation she got was seeing the hinge stopper send the door rebounding back at him, which he sadly stopped before it closed on his face.

"I hope you slept well last night," he happily said in a tone too loud for the hour.

"I didn't." She had a fitful hour of sleep before waking up and not returning to it for the rest of the night. She'd spent her suddenly found time on the couch reading a book comparing the types of kunai and shuriken of the Elemental Nations.

"Excellent to hear," he continued in the same tone. "Let's get going."

Ai groaned, but tossed the book on the coffee table and rolled off the couch. Once upright she followed Aoba out of the apartment, Abel close behind the pair.

They'd made it to the street before Aoba opened his mouth. "Where's your other one?"

Ai blinked slowly, processing his question. He'd probably found out about Tori through the shinobi grapevine and seeing as Abel was with them and Aoba could guess, and would be correct, that Seth was tucked away in her arms, left the odds to be that he was asking after her new companion.

In response, Ai gestured vaguely skyward. "Up there, somewhere."

"What? Not keeping it in your room for protection?"

"There's very little point in a _scout_ , if it's not scouting."

"Surely there isn't much to scout in the village."

"Oh, but just yesterday Old Lady Sumiko bought some ginger root in the market."

"You're making that up."

"Am I?"

"Yes, because Old Lady Sumiko _grows_ her own ginger root."

Ai shrugged her shoulders and hummed a noncommittal tone.

"Has anyone ever told you, you are so full of it?"

"'It' being an amazing personality and stunningly good looks?" Aoba opened his mouth, but Ai cut him off. "No. In fact, it's usually the opposite."

"I can't possibly imagine why."

"Now who's lying?"

It was then that Ai noticed Aoba had been steering her down backroads with far less human traffic and her mood soured. The frown that spread on Aoba's face said he picked up on her emotional shift.

"Look Ai, I get it. This isn't the easiest thing to deal with," he ignored Ai's derisive snort, "and I'm sorry, your uncontrollable mood swings are my fault, but Inoichi will be able to fix it "

"Can he fix the whole village hating me?" Ai groused as a woman literally pulled her child behind her as they passed. She could still feel their eyes on her as they continued down the street. She reached up and itched at pseudo-burning of the scar on the back of her neck.

" _That_ , I'm afraid, you'll have to fix on your own. If you can prove yourself to them, then they'll like you. But if you want my advice, I'd ignore their stupid opinions. Civilians are fickle at the best of times and their wants change as quickly as the breeze."

"Did they avoid you too?"

"When they found out I could read minds and emotions, it didn't matter that I needed physical contact, I was a walking plague."

"They don't seem to care now."

"Oh, they still do a little bit, trust me, but now," he tapped the side-rim of his sunglasses with a finger, "they think lack of eye contact keeps them safe."

"So, you suggest I deceive them?"

"I still normally need physical contact to read the actual thoughts of the mind, however, I am giving them the comfort they think they need in order to believe I'm not reading their petty thoughts about their neighbors every time I lay eyes on them. Which, I should add, would be a waste of my time and talent.

"I just happen to be skilled enough at understanding the human psyche and body language, to make it seem like I'm reading minds. Of course, my heightened sense of empathy helps with that as well, but if I didn't have the mind to understand, that'd all be useless."

Ai zoned out, giving Aoba a dubious side-glance as he continued to chatter away. _"At what point did this turn into a bragging session."_

He finally paused and sent her a look. "Okay, you can stop projecting your cynicism."

"If I'd known it would have gotten you to shut up, I would have done it earlier."

Aoba huffed. "No respect for your elders." He then muttered something about 'kids these days,' as he turned towards a house, heading for the door.

Ai looked around, glancing up and down the street. She hadn't even realized they'd entered the Yamanaka compound; the whole neighborhood was fairly nondescript. Looking back, she strolled forward, catching up to Aoba, who had just knocked on the door.

It didn't take very long for a pretty blue-eyed, blonde girl to answer the door.

"Good morning," she greeted. "I suppose you're here to see my father?"

"Hello, Ino," he replied. "Yes, we are. He is home, right?"

Ino nodded. "Yeah," she stepped to the side, opening the door further. "Come on in."

Ai followed Aoba, waving at Abel to stay outside. He tilted his head and walked off to the side, entering the Yamanaka's front garden where be began looking at the flowers.

She received varied looks of puzzlement from both Aoba and Ino.

"Don't judge me, he can like flowers and enjoy nature as much as he wants."

The door clacked shut behind them and Aoba said, "That cat is weird."

"All cats are weird," Ai countered. "And where I came from, we didn't have nature anymore."

"No nature?" Ino voice was hushed in her awe as she tried to imagine a place like that.

Ai looked to her fellow blonde. "No. The vast majority of animal and plant life had been eradicated years before I was even made."

"That sounds like an awful place to live."

"It was," Ai agreed.

Though, she'd had nothing to compare it to until she'd come here. That compound had been all she'd known and they'd never actually let them go outside. She'd only seen the world in the images they'd put in her mind. It was from there she'd learned the whole place was near inhabitable, seen the desolation caused by man and their wars. The only time she'd been outside and seen the ecosystem with her own eyes was when she'd been taken from that place, everything had been burning then.

"I'll get some tea started," Ino's voice interrupted Ai's thoughts. "Father's through there." The girl gestured to a nearby door they'd come to as Ino guided them through the house. With a soft smile to Ai, Ino departed, leaving her alone with Aoba. He knocked gently on the closed door, which was answered shortly afterwards.

"Ah, Ai. It's good to see you." Inoichi turned to other man. "Aoba," he greeted.

"I'll, uh, go wait in the front room," he said, retreating back the way they'd come.

"Come on in, Ai," he said, stepping aside for her to enter. As she crossed through, she let her eyes scan the room. Inoichi's office was homey. The back wall was lined with tall bookshelves, filled with not only books, but trinkets and pictures his family, along with what looked like one of his old team. Not far away was his desk, it too was covered with odds and ends, a couple of manila folders were scattered over its top, and there was a small vase with neatly arranged flowers sitting near a corner. Ticking away on the wall across from the desk was a nice-looking pendulum clock. Dotting the same wall, and a few others, were more pictures of family, as well as some artistically painted images of nature. There was even a pair of what looked like a child's drawing, which if Ai had to guess, were done by Ino many years ago.

Inoichi slid the door shut and led Ai to a small, and what was probably meant to be comfortable, sitting area. He gestured at one of the chairs. "I hear Aoba's jutsu didn't work entirely as planned."

"Is that uncommon?" Ai grumbled, sarcasm leaking through as she sat.

Inoichi smiled as he took the other chair which was in easy reach of hers. "He can sometimes get ahead of himself with his desire to protect others. But fixing what happened to you is a simple matter of figuring out where it got stuck. It's most likely a case of you reacting poorly to his pull."

"I suppose that's odd?" Ai asked, curious despite wanting to sulk and pretend to be uninterested.

Inoichi settled back into his chair, crossing one leg over the other. "It's not _un_ heard of. All minds are different. Some are naturally more susceptible and others are more resilient. And that's without getting training involved. Of course, I'm not saying yours is weak, but resistance is something built up over time as the mind grows more used to intrusion."

"What about my chakra? Is that not going to affect this?"

"It may, but it's a risk we'll have to take. Perhaps without threatening intentions nothing will happen."

"And if something does?"

"We'll deal with it when it occurs."

Ai was silent as she thought about what Inoichi said and he seemed content to allow her the time to think. After a moment Ai finally asked, "How is this fixing thing supposed to work?"

"I enter you mind and figure out where the catch is. Basically, when I say Aoba's jutsu got stuck, I mean that somewhere within your mind, it is holding onto his chakra, which was shaped by his will, and this is leaving a lasting effect. Could it eventually wear away? Possibly. However, since it hasn't seemed to weaken yet, there is the very real possibility that it may never fade, or take a very long time, and there is no telling what long-term effects this may have on your brain."

"Will it hurt? You entering my mind?"

"You may experience an uncomfortable or disconcerting sensation, but a willing mind suffers far less than an unwilling one. Additionally, I'll be allowing you to maintain control, which lessens the unpleasant sensation even more."

"Maintain control?"

Inoichi gave a short nod. "That means I'll be unable to delve through your memories without your consent. Which, unless Aoba's chakra has attached to one, I see no reason why we would need to. If you'd like we can begin now, or would you like a moment?"

"Might as well start," Ai said. She knew Inoichi had only offered her a moment to prepare in an attempt to be polite, but Ai saw nothing to prepare for. How could you prepare for another conscious entering your mind?

Hayate had once told her that hesitation only bred doubt and gave time for fear to grow. She figured this was one of those times best not overly thought through.

"Very well," Inoichi agreed, adjusting his position. "I need only to put my hand on your forehead." Ai nodded her consent and he reached forward. She closed her eyes as Inoichi's palm settled on her brow. It was warm and she could feel the callouses that dotted his palm. His hand warmed more as he began to pull on his chakra and the sound of a river flowing filled her mind.

His chakra, a cold river on a hot day, pressed into her mind and, surprisingly, hers parted before his. Not quite willingly, for it hissed like hot metal hitting water, but it still moved aside.

For a moment Ai felt like gravity lost it's hold upon her, before it resumed. Yet it didn't feel exactly as it had before.

Ai opened her eyes and found herself within her own mind.

※※※※※

Inoichi became aware again once his spiritual energy had finished transferring. It took a few blinks for him to decide that no, it wasn't him, Ai's mind was simply poorly lit.

He was in what appeared to be the center of a large library. Six tall bookshelves radiated away from his point, all perfectly spaced from each other and with hanging lanterns attached to their ends. Looking down an aisle, he found it disappeared into darkness, keeping him from seeing how far the shelf traveled, but looking up revealed a number of more levels above him which it too faded away into darkness, with only small specks of light proving it continued further than he could see.

He certainly couldn't say Ai's mind was disorganized. It may have been one of the neatest he'd seen outside his own clan. But that still left him with one question.

"Where am I?" he muttered aloud.

"This is my mind palace." Ai's voice came from behind him and he turned to see her. "It's where I store the information I was given." As she spoke the last part she walked towards a shelf and seemingly grabbed a book at random. She yanked it off and flung in towards him. As it flew through the air it flapped open, coming to a floating stop at his chest height. Inoichi stepped forward to see what was inside, but he paused when he noticed the pages were stark white and completely blank. Before his confusion could fully set in, an image coalesced above the open book.

A somewhat rectangular shape made of many smaller squares, sections of which were shaded different colors and each of them were filled with writing he couldn't read.

"It's a table of elements. _My_ table of elements, anyway," Ai explained. "I know there is one similar here, but," she shrugged.

"We don't have nearly as many," he muttered studying it even though he couldn't read the symbols labeling the small squares.

Ai nodded. "The ones near the bottom are man-made," she added. The new fact only increased Inoichi's awe. As Ai drifted away into another section of shelves, he attempted to pass his hand through the translucent image, however instead his hand hit what felt like a solid surface. The square he touched expanded, the unreadable information growing bigger with it. Beside the first, a new image formed. It was roughly spherical with even smaller ones in a close orbit around it.

"That's the atom itself," Ai said, returning with a few more books in her arms. She smacked the underside of the book and it closed with a snap.

Inoichi hadn't even realized he'd been leaning forward until he straightened, looking around at room he was in once more. It contained so much knowledge. _Ai_ contained so much knowledge.

 _"We were_ very _wrong,"_ he thought. To her he asked, "Are all these books like this one?"

"I suppose that depends on your definition of 'like.'" She dropped a book into the air before him. "A lot of them might would be considered junk," she stated, physically opening the on before him.

The image that appeared this time was in a language he could understand.

"A cooking recipe?"

Ai nodded, opening another. It was a poem. The third she laid out was a script to a play. "There's hundreds of thousands like these. Oh and," Ai closed her eyes, slowly turning her head like she was hearing something he could not. It didn't take long for him to hear what she was as well. Soft music slowly filled the air, quiet and gentle before gaining strength and volume. " _Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy_ ," Ai stated, her eyes still closed as she listened to the music. He watched as tension left her face, the tune relaxing her. After a moment she spoke again. "You know, this is kind of enjoyable, sharing this. Why didn't you do this earlier." She opened her eyes to look at him. "Ah, not you specifically, I mean the village, why did they never check my mind?"

"It wasn't deemed necessary," he told her truthfully. "Children often make up fantastical stories. And in relation to your trauma, we simple thought it was a coping mechanism. Though after the invasion and Orochimaru's statements, your previous story gained strength, but since then we've been busy with other matters and this may have been something that would have taken us awhile to get around to."

" _Or never bothered to check,_ " Inoichi left unsaid.

"Though, why so much cultural knowledge?" He asked, moving towards a shelf. None of the book's spines bore words to differentiate them from the others. "With the fuss people are making about you, you'd think there would be more weapons of mass destruction."

"Oh, I have those too." Her casual words made Inoichi pause. "But these things were deemed superfluous and were used to stress-test our minds. See if they'd break under the strain of having large amounts of information rapidly transferred. Many did." The way her voice changed, told him that she was bothered by this fact.

"Yours didn't."

Ai snorted. "Not through anything I did. What was it you said? Some minds are more naturally weak, while others are strong?" She turned away, looking at the shelves splayed out before her.

"I found this idea in the information they'd dumped on me." Ai reached forward trailing her fingers across the spines of the books before her. Inoichi looked back at the shelf in front of him, he reached forward and once more he felt his hand come into contact with a hard surface, this one keeping him from touching the books. "It was easy," Ai continued, "child's-play even, to set this up. They'd given me all the steps and laid them out before me. It's probably the only reason I survived those tests." Inoichi pressed his hand harder, but the invisible wall refused to let his hand pass. Ai didn't seem to notice his experimenting.

"My empire of dirt." Ai muttered distastefully before falling silent. The only sound became the softly playing music.

 _"Survivor's guilt,_ " he concluded.

"You feel bad that you survived while many did not," Inoichi summarized, "because you did nothing to deserve it. You feel it was mere chance." He put chakra into his push, still it refused to give and showed no indication of being about to. "Perhaps it was. Still, you did nothing wrong by living, not after the mental stresses, not after the attack you suffered, and even not after Hayate died." He removed his hand from the shelf and turned towards Ai. "That being said, you are short-changing them by _not_ living. I know for a fact that Hayate would want you to keep living, you should consider living for those that you care about. Do you think they would want you to reject the gift of life given to you?"

"No," I whispered, scrubbing her foot on the black tiling beneath her. As she did, Inoichi saw it shimmer, the gleam spreading out from her foot. However, it only travelled through the black tiles, the whites didn't glimmer. He looked down and beneath him was also some of the black tiles, he directed some of his own chakra into it and it glistened like oil, the gleam dying out as he stopped.

"Ai," he called to her and she looked up at him. "Can we go higher?"

She tilted her head at him but still agreed with a, "Uh, yeah."

The transportive pull she used was crude, and the moment it was done Inoichi caught himself on a railing he now stood by, letting the wave of dizziness pass.

He was apparently too used to doing it to other people than having it done to him.

Still, his position offered him a good look at the ground now a couple stories below.

On the ground floor, he couldn't tell if the black alternated with the white in a discernable pattern, but now above it, he could see that the black tiles formed their own shape. It took up all the floor he could see, and most likely extended past it. As his eyes traced the form, Ai walked up to stand beside him.

"Has this always been here Ai?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know what it is?"

"A pretty design?"

Her answer made him smile. "Not quite," he began. "While I'm not an expert, I can tell it bears a few similarities to sealing sigils. Ours aren't so geometric, but the semblance is there."

"I have a seal in my mind?"

"You do." He looked at her. "You said this was information they gave you, how to set up this place?" Ai nodded. "I think they may have been wiser than we thought. The seal keeps anyone but you from interacting with the books on the shelves. Unless you willingly share them, no one else can remove a book from its place." He looked back down to the largest seal he'd ever seen. "With it being in the floor, I imagine that if the seal were broken it would destroy the foundation, and in consequence, this whole room. Quite possibly your mind as well," he added.

"Lovely," Ai grumbled.

"Actually," he looked back up, "it's quite a good thing. If no one else can touch it, it makes you invaluable." He sobered. "This," he gestured out, "it dies with you, but it also spreads with you."

Ai stared out at what she'd dubbed her 'empire of dirt.' Inoichi watched her think. Her jaw clenching, she shook her head. "I'm fine with music and art, but there are a lot of dangerous things in here, and I've seen what they did to my world. That knowledge will die with me."

The firmness of her voice, the set look on her face, the distaste that radiated from her eyes, they all confirmed to Inoichi that Ai wouldn't share that knowledge. That she would choose death first. He nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Now, perhaps we should attend to reason we're here in the first place." Inoichi let his chakra sense flare out, but everything felt calm and nothing felt like Aoba's chakra. "I'm not feeling anything here. I assume there are other rooms?"

Ai nodded. "Yes, the mind palace is segregated." She turned away from him and suddenly what was once an aisle extending into darkness was now a wall with an arched, intricately carved double door. Inoichi gave her an impressed look, to which she shrugged. "You are only limited by your imagination."

He smiled. "I find that is particularly true within the mind."

Ai turned back to the center, looking over the railing, she waved her arm. Following her sight, he saw as the books, which had been left floating in the air, snapped shut and shot off slamming into their section of shelves.

Once she had cleaned up, Ai led the way to the door, which he now noticed was carved with a great tree, its branches spreading wide and its roots a twinned, geometric pattern. Carved around the large tree where hundreds of stars.

As they neared, the two doors cracked down the middle, opening before them. They paused once they passed through the tree. Stretching before the pair was a poorly lit corridor, though not a corridor in the normal standards. This one had no walls or ceiling and the 'floor' was only marked by the rows of doors upon doors lining both sides. From what Inoichi could see, they were all different from each other, not always by much, for some only their color varied, but he could easily tell that they had entered a stretch of her memories.

"Everything that isn't… that," Ai gestured vaguely over her shoulder.

"Let us continue, shall we?" The two stepped forward and Inoichi heard the large doors behind them close with a thud. Moving down the grey pathway, he let his chakra sense keep watch for any sign of something that wasn't Ai. In the darkness beyond, from the corner of his eye, he saw something flicker and move. When he turned his head to search, Ai broke the silence of their walk.

"Ignore it."

"What was it?" He continued to scan the black.

"Tori," she stated, "she's sending an image."

"Of what?"

In response to his question Ai looked up and he copied her. A strong sense of vertigo washed over him as, in greys and whites, a view of the village from above spread through the black sky. The image shivered, focusing on a pair of blue and green shapes that darted over rooftops.

"Two ninja passing by apparently." The imaged blurred and faded to black. "She's been testing the range at which I can receive messages, images, whatever, from her."

"How far is that?"

"Not very, only from the wall of the village."

Inoichi hummed, looking back the way they were walking. It wasn't like the wall of the village was _that_ close and they were only two, but still, if Ai was in the right place at the right time, she might could alert them to something no one had noticed. He glanced at the girl walking in contented silence beside him. She was shaping into someone who could be a very good intel gatherer.

" _If we could find a way to get her into our department,_ " Inoichi mused

A tug on his chakra pulled him from his contemplations. "Wait, Ai," he called as he stopped walking. She came to a halt a few paces past him. "What's behind this door?" His chakra felt caught like clothes on a briar.

Ai shrugged, coming to the sterile white door. "Nothing particularly special," she turned her gaze from the door to him, "or enjoyable."

"May we?"

She shrugged again. "No point in any of this if we don't, I suppose." With a shove the pushed the door open and as they stepped through the space around them changed.

Lifeless trees lay broken and crooked across the landscape and each step they took puffed up a cloud of ash. In all directions, the world stretched grey and dead before him. Behind him, the door clicked shut. It was the only sound the desolate landscape.

"Will you tell me about this place, Ai?" He asked as he turned in the direction he felt his chakra gently tugging him. Ai kept pace beside him.

"It is the world I knew," she spoke, sticking her hands into her pockets, "before I came to this one. By the time I was made, it wasn't much, my people had been at war for generations. They were fighting over whatever few resources were left and, in their desperation, they made us, bastions of knowledge.

"The scientists used to call us 'the world's salvation.' They said we'd lead them into a new era." Ai gave a helpless shrug. "Whatever their intentions, it obviously didn't work as planned." She pointed just slightly left of the direction they were headed. "It's not easy to see, but that's were we used to live." Had Ai not pointed it out, Inoichi wasn't sure he would have spotted it until they had gotten closer. What he'd taken as a hill, he now noticed was a bunker, the same grey as the ash-strewn ground around it, one side a little too steep to be natural.

A deep rumble roared through the sky overhead and the ground beneath Inoichi's feet trembled from the noise. The air became humid and stifling as Ai's chakra became agitated. In the far distance a light bloomed, white and orange. It grew rapidly in intensity becoming nearly blinding before it vanished like it had never been there.

"Sorry," Ai said softly. "That was me."

"It's all right," Inoichi reassured. "No harm done, and you obviously controlled it well."

Ai grimaced as she played with the edge of her sleeve.

As they continued their trek, it occurred to Inoichi that this wasn't just a memory of a place, it was quite possibly a mental scar as well. This barren earth was a representation of the pain and helplessness she most likely felt. It reflected her feelings of being unrooted, that she was unable to grow.

It was a somewhat worrisome sign.

His hypothesis gained strength as they finally rounded the bunker and a field of briars spread before them. Caught in the barbs, he could feel Aoba's chakra fluttering like a tattered cloth.

" _Well,_ _this shouldn't be hard._ " Inoichi took a breath and released it.

"Would you mind staying here, Ai?" She shrugged in response, her face saying she didn't care either way. With her consent Inoichi walked the few feet to the briar patch, but as he reached out to touch it, he paused as another sensation washed over him.

 _Do not touch me_ , it seemed to say. _I will hurt you._

He studied the feeling as it washed over him, raising to choke him.

" _Doubt,_ " he concluded. " _And… something else._ " A wave of heat and chills ran across his skin. Disconcerting and physically uncomfortable. Worry rushed up as he figured out what was causing these sensations. It was the subtlest and most artfully placed genjutsu Inoichi had ever seen in his life.

His eyes roved over the patch of twisting thorns. Nearly hidden and partially smothered by the brambles, he spotted a delicate red flower, wilting and curled in on itself. That flower, he realized, was the part of Ai left in this place.

How long had Ai been affected by this jutsu?

Inoichi pushed his chakra out from himself, letting it drift gently across the briars, careful to not get it caught. All the while, he felt the genjutsu nagging at him, trying to plant its fear and doubt.

No, it hadn't been meant to be like this. A small seed planted to fuel Ai's doubt. Aoba's jutsu and chakra had been caught, disrupting the fragile balance, it had inadvertently fed this. Which meant the briars had grown in a matter of days and Inoichi didn't want to consider what would happen if it had more time.

This genjutsu had been designed to avoid detection, placed in an area Ai would be least likely to notice or come across it. It wouldn't be too difficult to break. Especially since it'd already been disturbed.

Careful to avoid the thorns, Inoichi placed his chakra-flooded hand on an outreaching branch.

Behind him Ai gasped.

Turning to look, he found Ai kneeling on the ground, panting out breaths. She had wrapped her arms around her middle and was curled around them like she was in pain.

He almost let go and went to her, but something, within him, he wasn't sure, shouted to not let go and his hand froze in position. "It's okay, Ai," he called to her. "It won't last long." She didn't reply and Inoichi returned back to his work, ready to fix this as quickly as he could.

Heat, as if he stood too close to a fire, began to creep across his back and the air around him became more humid than the worst summer in Konoha.

He reached out touching the genjutsu with his chakra. It shattered under the contact, however he wasn't done.

Ai groaned and the heat ratcheted up a notch, invisible tendrils of flame licking at him. If Inoichi had ever wondered what a steamed and then fried dumpling felt like as it was being cooked, he now believed he had a good idea.

Without hesitation, Inoichi got to work purging both Aoba's and the briar's foreign chakra, which took longer and required more finesse to handle. As he flushed the chakra, he burrowed his down to the withered flower, wrapping his around it protectively, keeping it safe as he eradicated the rest.

The loud inhuman roaring of a machine thundered overhead, shaking the ground and rattling Inoichi's bones. Loud cracks echoed slowly, deliberately, and close by him. Overtop the sound was a continuous wail of children crying and underneath all of it, he could still somehow hear Ai repeating the word 'stop' over and over.

Beneath his hand the briar disintegrated, the reaction cascading down from the branch to the rest of the strangling plant. Once the it was all gone, no more than ash in the wind, the boiling heat and cacophony of noises vanished.

Inoichi released his protective bubble around the flower and he watched as it raised its head skyward, its petals straightening. The dull purple and red of the flower turned vibrant. Beneath him and the flower bright green grass sprouted, spreading out from the flower itself. Overhead the lighting changed and he looked up, lights twinkled to life and color swam in the air, creating a marvelous night sky. He wasn't sure if it was him, Ai, or her mindscape that sighed with the gentle, and welcomed, breeze.

Looking back at the girl, he found Ai, tears running down her cheeks, staring wide-eyed at the landscape that had just formed. It hadn't gone much far beyond her location, but the fact that it had so quickly replaced the broken one said that Ai would be more than able to bounce back.

He made his way over to her and knelt down. "I think it's about time we return to our physical bodies, don't you?"

Ai nodded mutely to his words.

Closing his eyes, he unraveled his connection to her mind, pulling his chakra from her.

When he opened them again, he was sitting in his chair once more, hand still against Ai's forehead. He lowered his hand and leaned back in his chair, to which his body protested greatly. Ai blinked open her eyes.

"How do you feel?" he asked, glancing at the clock on the wall. He was a little surprised to find that a little more than an hour had passed.

 _"I'm obviously getting old,"_ he thought ruefully.

Instead of answering, Ai stared at her hands as if they were new to her, flexing them a few times before she placed both of them, one on top of the other, over her heart. She then looked up at him, her blue eyes, to Inoichi anyway, seemed clearer than they had before. "Better," she said softly. He eyes drifted down once more. "I feel like… I hadn't realized how much everything seemed to be weighing me down. Thank you." Inoichi nodded to her.

"Of course."

"May I ask a question… ah, Yamanaka-sensei?" He barely stopped himself from raising an eyebrow at her tone. He'd never interacted with her much, but he now felt like this was probably the politest she'd ever been in her life. The Yamanaka-sensei alone had sounded like its own question.

"Go ahead," he replied.

She bit her lip briefly. "I know my issue was an external one, but does you jutsu work with internal ones? Depression? Anxiety? PTS," he titled his head at that "– er, post-traumatic stress?" Her naming it fully clicked with him, though she obviously had a different name.

"Combat neurosis?"

Her eyes flicked briefly up and to her left before she nodded.

"It… can," he hedged. "Our jutsu can help suppress the associated feelings, however, it generally doesn't last long. Having a Yamanaka treat you may help at first, but ultimately, like ignoring it altogether, can do more harm in the long run. We are, sadly, not a miracle cure."

"Ah," she mumbled, still looking to be in thought. "but, there are medicines?"

"Pills," Inoichi confirmed, though he found himself curious as to where this was going. "Do you also have medical knowledge?"

She shook her head slightly. "I only know the ingredients. I don't have the technical knowledge to make them." Inoichi nodded to this, taking her little offer for what it was. He left the silence be, allowing Ai time to talk if she desired it further, and after a moment she looked back to him, shifting in her seat. "I guess… I should go?"

"You can," he agreed, "but if there is ever anything you would like to talk about, I am more than willing to listen and help the best I can." Ai nodded and stood. As she arrived at the door, Inoichi added, "Would you mind sending Aoba in? I'd like to talk to him before you both go." She nodded again and closed the door behind her.

Inoichi leaned his head back in his chair, taking in a deep breath, he slowly released it, loosing the tension he could feel gathered in his body.

"What a mess," he muttered to himself. There was a light knock on his door before it slid back open, revealing Aoba.

Waving his hand, Inoichi gestured Aoba to enter. As the other man closed the door and settled into the spot Ai had vacated, Inoichi rubbed at his neck, massaging the stiffed muscle there.

"That rough?" He asked.

His reply was a huffed laugh and a wry grin. "I can happily inform you that what was wrong with Ai wasn't entirely your fault. And with any luck her chakra control will be drastically improving." Aoba sat back a little bit in his surprise and Inoichi expounded. "Ai has been under a genjutsu for… at least five years." Aoba made a choked sound that Inoichi took for a 'what?' He shrugged. "My best guess, with how _exceptional_ that genjutsu was, is that it was most likely Itachi Uchiha's work."

Aoba finally seemed to rediscover his words and he burst out with a "But why?"

To that Inoichi shrugged again. "All I can be sure of is that when I finished removing the genjutsu and foreign chakra, her mindscape bloomed. I can only conclude that that was its original state. It's my belief that the genjutsu took time in altering certain aspects of Ai, it was so slow acting that no one seemed to notice and even Hayate could reason away the changes as 'a phase,' or 'slacking off,' or some such.

"Despite how well done it was, there's no telling what may have happened in the long run and with your jutsu throwing it off, from what I've heard she became even more unstable and near suicidal at times." Aoba nodded to this. From the reports Asuma had given, Ai hadn't even _tried_ to dodge the killing blow he'd intercepted.

"It will take time for it to fully repair itself, but the fact that it so quickly started to, is a good sign. She's a bit better at bouncing back than we'd thought. Additionally, from the way she responded after, she's unaware of the genjutsu being there at all, which is probably for the best."

With a sigh, Aoba sagged into his seat. "That's good, but still, why the genjutsu? If he wanted to deprive the village of an asset, why not just kill her? The fact that he killed neither her nor Sasuke would suggest emotional attachment to them, but with the reports on how he has sense treated them, suggests that is likely not the case. The best I can come up with is that Ai might have been left as a decade-delayed explosion, so to speak."

"Itachi Uchiha is so full of contradictions I'd have no desire to even try to navigate his labyrinthine mind, should the occasion ever occur."

Aoba shrugged and looked away briefly. "Fair," he conceded. After a few moments he asked, "You really think it was him?"

"As I said, the genjutsu was exceptional. It continued to work by feeding off of Ai's own chakra and was extremely subtle, not that she has much practice at noticing them. Honestly, I think the only one who could match it is Kurenai Yuhi, but I doubt she'd have a reason and they never met until recently. While Itachi had ample access."

"So, what do we do?"

Inoichi tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair in consideration. "Nothing for now," he finally said. "Until we have a new Hokage, I see no reason to muddle the waters of 'what do we do with a problem like Ai,' any further." Aoba hummed at those words. "Needless to say, keep an eye on her," Inoichi instructed. "I don't foresee any issues, but you know what to watch for." The dark-haired man nodded at this. "And maybe teach her how to check for and purge foreign chakra from herself." After Aoba acknowledged his instructions he glanced at the clock and said, "All right then, I have another meeting to get to and I was hoping to catch Shikaku before it starts." He stood and Aoba followed his lead.

"More village security talks?" Aoba cocked his brow questioningly.

"Yes, eventually, but this this one isn't about that. This one is for Ai."

Aoba blinked. "Really?"

"Shikaku has excellently maneuvered all clan and village leaders into this meeting."

"All of them?"

Inoichi hummed his affirmative. "Before the Third's death he finalized Ai's adoption into the Gekko family," Aoba bobbed his head, he knew this information, "and as you know, this grants her citizenship in the Leaf Village. And as Shikaku's been arguing with the councilors and Danzo, that affords her the same rights as any other citizen. Which means they can't just throw her into prison because they don't like her and without a Hokage, if they want to take any sort of action, it's going to take a majority of all now involved," he continued, shrugging on his vest. "He has managed to buy her time from the training regimen of Lord Danzo Shimura."

"What if they all side against her?"

"I don't think Shikaku would have pulled this stunt if he thought it wouldn't go his way and I wouldn't be surprise either if he hasn't finagled a way to get the senior jonin involved as well." He pulled on his haori over his vest. "He may not know Ai personally, but he's not going to let anyone run rampant over the laws of our village." He grinned, picturing Shikaku's face set in a fierce scowl when he'd first heard of what the Council was trying to do. "Plus, I think he just doesn't like Danzo."

"I can't blame him," Aoba commented. "He cornered me the last time I was in there." Inoichi's face turned troubled. "He told me that no one would hold it against me if I decided to stop training Ai." Aoba shivered at the memory. "The way he said it, though."

"What did you tell him?"

"That I would be a poor shinobi if I decided to abandon my Hokage's orders just because he had died." Inoichi nodded his approval and thumped the other man on the shoulder.

"If I'm fortunate I won't have to endure many of these meetings before they find Lady Tsunade," he steered both of them towards the door, "and it's unlikely she'll side with the council." He grinned at Aoba. "You aren't getting attached, are you?"

"No," he defended immediately. "She's a pain, but she's smart and I think she'd be more of an asset to the village if we don't mistreat her." Aoba shook his head. "Some of those Anbu guys aren't all there, you know?"

"I agree, so why don't we reunite you with your little student." The face Aoba pulled at the phrase was entertaining.

※※※※※

Ino showed up at Ai's side soon after she'd sent Aoba back to chat with Inoichi.

"Would you like some tea?" she offered with a smile. Ai wasn't sure her stomach could handle anything, it'd been staging a mutiny since soon after she'd been released from Inoichi's jutsu, but she accepted anyway. There was always the chance it'd calm it down.

After her acceptance, Ino waved at Ai to follow. "Sorry, it's not immediately available. Once half an hour passed, I cleaned up." Ai was a little taken aback by that information. She hadn't looked at the clock when he'd left Inoichi's office and hadn't realized so much time had passed. "Sorry," she apologized.

Ino gave her a smile as they entered the kitchen. "It's not a problem, I just hope my father was able to help."

"He was," Ai stated, but was soon distracted by the multiple flower arrangements scattered across whatever surface was available.

"Sorry for the mess," Ino smiled sheepishly. "My mother and I have been trying out new displays for the store."

"They're beautiful," she said softly, which caused Ino to beam and begin chatting away about how they grew the flowers themselves. Ai was distracted, however, as she carefully walked up to the nearest one set on the table, suddenly aware that she couldn't recall the last time she'd enjoyed looking at flowers. She could recall that when she'd been young, she and Abel had loved looking at anything living, but when had she stopped?

She gently reached out and touched the bright red petals of a ladybird. The black spots it bore inside felt hypnotizing and Ai couldn't look away.

 _Black whirling in red. Holding her in place._

 _Whatever it takes._

Ai flinched away and her stomach dropped, nausea rising in its place. She knew those eyes.

Ino was suddenly beside her. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I…" she started and stopped. "I'm not feeling very good."

"That can happen sometimes," Ino tried to comfort her. "The mind-transfer jutsu can cause strange vertigo-like sensations. A lot of people find it disconcerting."

"That's," Ai leaned on the table and closed her eyes as her stomach rolled, "one way to describe it."

"Maybe you should sit down," Ino said as she pulled out a chair.

"No," Ai pleaded, waving Ino off. "I think I… I think I'm…" Ino sidestepped a little closer to a garbage can, obviously thinking Ai was going to need it soon. She swallowed the saliva that was beginning to pool in her mouth and began a breathing exercise. It seemed to help a little and she was able to straighten up. "I think I'd like to go rest. Can you tell Aoba I went back to my place?"

Worry was written all over Ino, in both her face and stance. "Are you sure? You can lay down here if you need."

"Yeah, I'm sure. Will you tell him for me? Please?"

Ino nodded. "Okay. Just, please be careful."

"Sure," Ai agreed readily if just so she could leave sooner. Ino walked with her back to the front door and Ai walked as quickly as she could without running, or throwing up, back to the street outside. Abel joined her, his head lowered and looking at her through the top of his eyes, or he would have been if he had eyes.

Ai looked back to the Yamanaka house, Ino was still in the doorway watching so Ai waved slightly at her, trying to set Ino a bit at ease. She then took off at a semi-fast walk.

She just needed to be out, to breathe. Being inside had felt stuffy and suffocating.

That and she didn't want to be around Ino for what she knew was an incoming breakdown.

Ai had honestly meant to go back to her apartment, she'd even been going in that direction, but as she passed by a path that broke away from the road, she hesitated, staring down the barely-there track. It took only a moment for her to decide to veer down the path.

It didn't take long before she found herself in a clearing surrounded by trees, not far from her a lazy river slowly flowed. It was very picturesque for one of Konoha's many training grounds.

For something that held so many of her memories.

Surrounding her was the field where she and the two Uchiha would go to train. If you could call it that. Itachi had been intent on teaching her chakra control, but Shisui would inevitably start a rousing distraction of some kind, bent on making her laugh.

He'd never had much trouble at it.

They had been her first friends in the village and it hurt her to know one was dead under mysterious and questionable circumstances and the other had felt forced to do something so horrible and abandon his home. Meanwhile, here she was, years older and still none the better.

This had been the place too, where she'd learned what had happened to Shisui, where…

A shadow moved in the tree line and Ai turned as the figure stepped out.

 _"Itachi?" Ai called questioningly. He was over an hour late and he was_ never _late. It was dark now and Hayate didn't like her staying out after it got too dark. Just because it was a ninja village didn't mean it was safe, as she very well knew, but Itachi and Shisui had said they'd meet her here, so she waited._

 _The clouds shifted, allowing the quarter moon above to illuminate the darkened figure of Itachi. He'd always been good at keeping a straight face, but Shisui was a pro a digging out smiles, even Itachi's scarcely shared ones. But Ai had never seen him look so lost. He'd never looked more like the thirteen-year old boy he was._

 _"Itachi? What's wrong?" He walked slowly towards her. As he neared, she could see the darkened smear of dried blood covering his right hand and another running down from his left eye._

 _Fear bubbled up, washing over everything._

 _"Where's Shisui?" Itachi's flinched at her question, stopping a short distance from her._

 _"Shisui died tonight," he told her. Her eyes went wide, filling with tears. Burning._

 _"What?"_

 _"I thought you deserved to hear it from me first," he said. "I'm sorry."_

 _The burning turned to pressure. Pushing hard at her right eye. She whimpered at the pain, her hand going up to rub at it._

 _Itachi closed the distance and bent down to her shorter level. "Ai, what's wrong?" His hands made an aborted motion to reach for her shoulders as he remembered one was covered in blood._

 _"My eye," she moaned, pushing at it, trying to relieve the pain. "It hurts. It…" There was some sort of pop she heard, felt, she didn't know, but she did know one thing. She looked up at Itachi, meeting his dark eyes. "He took it," she whispered. The same pressure began to build in the other one._

 _Horror swept across his face, followed by fear of his own. This time his hands did catch onto her shoulders._

 _"Ai," he stated as serious as she'd ever heard him, "Don't ever repeat that again."_

 _She looked away to clutch at the other eye, before her, she could feel Itachi's despair swirling._

 _A hand cupped her face, lifting it as the other brushed away her hands. Her eyes met Itachi's now red ones. Seeing them before her was mesmerizing, she couldn't help but to keep staring. The world behind him turned black and white._

 _"Ai, you must avoid Danzo Shimura at_ all _costs. Do what you must to not draw his attention._ He will kill you. _You must do_ whatever it takes _." His eyes saddened. "You won't see me again after this. I'm sorry," he repeated. His hands fell away, gently like bird feathers._

 _Ai blinked and he was gone. She turned around, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. When had he left? How could he just tell her so emotionlessly that Shisui had died and that he'd never see her again? How could he just leave her like that? Tears welled up in her eyes._

 _"_ Stupid ninja _," her brain hissed. "_ And their stupid jutsu _."_

 _If she could have pulled away from herself, she would have. Had that really been her thoughts? Had she always felt that way?_

 _She must have._

 _Chin trembling, she made her way into the woods._

Ai's hands clapped over her mouth. To stop the scream of anger or the cry of despair, she couldn't figure out. Tears ran down her face as her body and mind warred about whether she should be _furious_ with how Itachi had treated her, how he hadn't trusted her to keep her mouth shut or somehow, and disturbingly, touched that he'd cared enough to try to do whatever he could to keep her safe.

" _Both_ ," her mind decided firmly.

Which only made her more sad and then more furious.

Her hands drifted down to her throat. She felt like she was drowning.

And now her chakra had joined the _revolt_ her stomach had staged. She could feel it boiling in her stomach. It was molten lava inside her, boiling up, building pressure, demanding to erupt.

Distantly she was aware of Abel, bumping into her leg. Calling for her attention.

 _A white blank page and a swelling rage, rage._

She let out a scream, forcing her building fury, fear, and despair out at the trees in front of her. They groaned and creaked, but as she pushed her chakra-fueled feelings away, she heard them crack and splinter violently, rupturing explosively from the inside.

She let out a shaky breath, the expenditure of emotions and chakra leaving her tired.

"You're doing it wrong," came a voice from behind her.

Ai whipped around at the voice. Standing at what was probably a less than safe distance was Shino, but it wasn't his voice that had spoken. Beside him was a taller, yet similarly faced individual she could only assume was Shino's father.

"Your chakra is unbalanced and lacks harmony. That is the reason for the explosions," he stated, arms crossed before him.

Ai chose to ignore his observations. "I know, you're supposed to schedule time for training grounds. I'm sorry for being in your way." She turned, intent on walking away, Ai only made it a few steps before she was stopped short by the older man's voice.

"You are welcome to train with us, should you like." She could imagine just how well that would go.

She'd just found out the boy she'd once considered a friend had dropped a five-year genjutsu on her _for her protection,_ of all things, she'd been weeping like a small infant, and to make it even better she'd just made a complete fool of herself in front of the two Aburames with her bout of juvenile, and dangerous, rage, but her feet just wouldn't step forward anymore, no matter how much she demanded they follow her orders. So, instead, the three of them stood there in what she felt was the epitome of awkwardness.

"There are only a few outside of the Aburame clan who know that we are capable of speaking with our kikaichu." Where the hell was he going with this? "Not with words, but through our chakra. Minute shifting of chakra can mean different things, impart feelings, words, sounds, or images that mean something to us and create an understanding between host and insect. No others can 'hear' it as we do, even among our own clan, it varies between people. It can be very disorienting and confusing to those first learning, similar to learning a new language, with limited aid."

Ai turned around to see him as he spoke. She could feel something strange and warm spreading in her chest at his words.

"It seems likely, that like us, you possess a high, and unique, sensitivity to chakra, that most cannot relate. It is my impression that you are sensing the remnant of chakra left behind after high emotional periods. For lack of better explanation, you are perhaps feeling the moments that 'make a person who they are.' Picking up on what they love or hate, what they are strongly attached to."

Was that what the voice was? Her mind translating what she felt into the things she heard?

Had Itachi known this? He feared this Danzo Shimura enough that he'd chosen to sabotage what he couldn't control, to take out her choices as a factor? He must have thought she'd hit onto something too dangerous for her to remember, so he'd done what he could to erase it.

Had Hayate known too? Not about Shisui, but just the extreme chakra sensitivity? "But why wouldn't he…?" she whispered to herself, but the older Aburame picked up soon after she trailed off.

"I cannot pretend to know the thoughts of another, but from what I have heard of you, you possess unique talents compared to many in this village. Perhaps he was concerned what the discovery of your skill might bring to you. A progenitor of a new bloodline is put under much scrutiny and stress. It is quite possible he wished to protect you as long as possible from that."

Tears began to form in her eyes again, so she dropped them, studying her shivering hands.

"Learning to control a bloodline talent can be difficult, especially on one's own," his voice was closer and she heard the gentle swish of his steps. His feet stopped just inside her vision and a hand pressed down firmly on her shoulder. "There is nothing wrong with you."

Ai jerked her head up, looking into his covered eyes.

"Let go," he stated, "of all the fear, the anger, and the sorrow. Of everything brewing inside of you. You need to let it all go."

 _Even though you're scared, you're stronger than you know._

The tears welled over and a breath shuddered in her chest. The Aburame clan head only used a little pressure to pull her to him. She stumbled as she closed the short distance, pressing her face into his jacket and she wept on a complete stranger.

That feeling in her chest, she knew then what it was.

Hope.

She could do this.

" _Whatever it takes_ ," a voice that sounded suspiciously like Itachi whispered in her head.

※※※※※

 _Hurt_ – Johnny Cash (the 'empire of dirt' line, not gonna lie, stole it)

 _White Blank Page_ – Mumford and Sons

 _Something Wild_ – Lindsey Stirling ft. Andrew McMahon.

You know I always see 'ft' in songs and I just think Feet, not Featuring. Enjoy this week's insight in to my weird mind.


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